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TO  ILLUSTRATE  "THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA,"  BY  WM.  ELEROY  CURTIS 


THE  CAPITALS 


OF 

SPANISH  AMERICA 


BY 

WILLIAM  ELEROY  CURTIS 

LATE  COMMISSIONER  FROM  THE  UNITED  STATES  TO  THE  GOVERNMENTS  OF 
CENTRAL  AND  SOUTH  AMERICA 


ILLUSTRATED 


RMp 

fir®" 

1*  . .  V  V  \T* 

GIFT  OF  £ 

Most  Reverend 

ARCHBISHOP  l 

R|  |u 

CORRIGAN, M 

H|  ■  i'.'u 

To  the  Library  of 

gf  f 

St.  Joseph's  Seminary,  | 

pi.J* 

ounwcco.'i,  n.  y,  4 

•’■V.-'S.  ?•  *  v'*J 

A.- 


NEW  YORK 

HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  FRANKLIN  SQUARE 


Copyright,  1888,' by  Harper  &  Brothers. 


All  rights  reserved. 


TO 

THE  MEMORY  OF 

CHESTER  ALAN  ARTHUR 


TWENTY  -  FIRST 

PRESIDENT  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

THIS  BOOK  IS 

©etifcateti 

HIS  KINDNESS  MADE  ITS  PUBLICATION  POSSIBLE  ;  AND  HIS  AF¬ 
FECTIONATE  INTEREST  ADDED  PLEASURE  TO  ITS  PREPARATION 


Mr.  Arthur's  Acceptance  of  the  Dedication. 


New  York,  April  7,  1887. 

William  E.  Curtis,  Esquire,  Washington  : 

Dear  Sir, —  In  compliance  with  your  request,  I  enclose  an  unsigned 
draft  of  a  letter  dictated  by  Mr.  Arthur  last  November.  It  was  submitted 
to  him  a  few  days  before  he  died,  and  as  he  desired  to  make  no  further 
changes  in  the  text,  I  was  to  have  a  clean  copy  made  for  his  signature ;  but 
he  was  fatally  stricken  before  that  was  done. 

Very  respectfully  yours, 

James  C.  Reed. 


November  13,  1886. 

My  dear  Curtis, — The  graceful  terms  in  which  you  propose  to  dedi¬ 
cate  your  book  to  me  add  still  anotner  obligation  that  I  may  not  be  able 
to  repay. 

I  appointed  you  Secretary  of  the  South  American  Commission  without 
your  solicitation,  because  I  knew  your  ability,  energy,  and  industry  would 
be  felt  as  they  have  been  in  the  effort  to  bring  our  Spanish-American  neigh¬ 
bors  into  closer  commercial  and  political  relations  with  us. 

I  had  given  much  consideration  to  the  subject,  and  realized  what  is  made 
so  clear  in  the  Reports  of  the  South  American  Commission,  that  the  future 
commercial  prosperity  of  the  United  States  required  something  to  be  done  to 
extend  our  trade  with  the  continent  southward.  The  Commission,  of  which 
you  were  Secretary  and  subsequently  became  a  member,  was  intended  as  an 
initiatory  step  in  that  direction. 

In  my  judgment,  it  is  not  only  the  duty  of  the  United  States  to  encourage 
and  assist  our  merchants  and  manufacturers  in  the  expansion  of  their  foreign 
trade,  by  seeking  new  markets  and  furnishing  facilities  for  reaching  them, 
but  there  is  a  higher  achievement  in  promoting  the  welfare  of  our  sister 
republics  through  the  consistent  exercise  of  every  friendly  office  tending  to 
secure  their  peaceable  development  and  national  prosperity. 

I  am  sure  your  “The  Capitals  of  Spanish  America”  will  furnish  our  own 
people  with  trustworthy  and  late  news  about  our  neighbors  to  the  south¬ 
ward,  and  that  your  graphic  pen  will  make  the  book  as  interesting  as  it  is 
instructive.  I  shall  await  its  publication  with  very  deep  interest. 

If  my  strength  permits,  it  will  give  me  great  pleasure  to  act  upon  your 
suggestion,*  but  just  now  I  am  hardly  equal  to  the  demands  of  my  private 
correspondence.  With  cordial  regard, 

I  am  faithfully  yours, 

To  William  E.  Cuhtis,  . . 

Washington,  D.  C. 


*  To  write  an  Introduction  to  this  volume. 


CONTENTS 


MEXICO.  ^gb 

The  Capital  of  Mexico . . . .  1 

GUATEMALA  CITY. 

The  Capital  of  Guatemala . . .  60 

COMAYAGUA. 

The  Capital  of  Honduras .  114 

MANAGUA. 

The  Capital  of  Nicaragua . . . . .  138 

SAN  SALVADOR. 

The  Capital  of  San  Salvador .  171 

SAN  JOSE. 

The  Capital  of  Costa  Rica . . .  196 

BOGOTA. 

The  Capital  of  Colombia .  225 

CARACAS. 

The  Capital  of  Venezuela . . .  257 

QUITO. 

The  Capital  of  Ecuador .  298 

LIMA. 

The  Capital  of  Peru . 355 


X 


CONTENTS. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO.  page 

The  Capital  op  Bolivia .  416 

SANTIAGO. 

The  Capital  of  Chili .  454 

PATAGONIA .  516 

BUENOS  AYRES. 

The  Capital  of  the  Argentine  Republic .  542 

MONTEVIDEO. 

The  Capital  of  Uruguay .  591 

ASUNCION. 

The  Capital  of  Paraguay . ’ . • .  623 

I 

RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 

The  Capital  of  Brazil . , .  660 


INDEX 


707 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


Map  op  South  America 


Frontispiece. 


PAGE 

It  was  used  in  the  Days  of  Moses. .  2 

A  Water-carrier .  3 

Ruins  of  the  Covered  Way  to  the 

Inquisition .  4 

Mexican  Muleteer .  5 

Shops .  6 

Castle  of  Chapultepec .  7 

Tile  Front .  9 

The  Tree  of  Montezuma .  10 

Prince  Yturbide .  11 

General  Grant  on  a  Banana  Planta¬ 
tion  .  15 

Church  of  Guadalupe .  19 

Iztaccihuatl .  20 

Ex-President  Gonzales .  22 

President  Porfirio  Diaz .  23 

The  Dome .  25 

San  Cosme  Aqueduct,  City  of  Mex¬ 
ico  .  27 

The  Palace  of  Mexico .  29 

The  Cathedral,  City  of  Mexico. ...  33 

Styles  of  Architecture .  35 

A  Mexican  Caballero . 38 

Noche  Triste  Tree .  41 

The  Picadors .  45 

Teasing  the  Bull .  45 

The  Encore .  46 

Mexican  Beggar .  48 

On  Market-day . 51 

Sunday  at  Santa  Anita .  53 

A  Mexican  Belle .  54 

Cactus,  and  Woman  kneading  Tor¬ 
tillas  .  55 

First  Protestant  Church  in  Mexico  57 
The  first  Christian  Pulpit  in  Amer¬ 
ica — Tlaxcala .  58 


Font  in  old  Church  of  San  Fran¬ 


cisco  . 59 

View  of  Guatemala  City .  61 

Ruins  of  the  old  Palace  at  An¬ 
tigua  Guatemala .  65 

Alvarado’s  Tree .  69 

Ancient  Arches .  70 

The  Old  and  the  New .  71 

How  the  Old  Town  looks  now ...  73 

Fragment  of  a  Ruined  Monas¬ 
tery  . 74 

Jose  Rufino  Barrios .  75 

Francisco  Morazan .  77 

Church  of  San  Francesca,  Guate¬ 
mala  la  Antigua .  79 

One  of  fifty-seven  Ruined  Monas¬ 
teries .  81 

Fagade  of  an  old  Church .  83 

A  Remnant .  85 

Fort  of  San  Jose,  Guatemala  ....  87 

Yniensi  Gate,  Guatemala .  89 

A  Volcanic  Lake .  91 

On  the  Road  to  the  Capital .  93 

Tiled  House-tops .  99 

Market-place,  Guatemala .  101 

In  the  Rainy  Season .  102 

Maguey  Plant .  103 

A  Native  Sandal .  107 

Ornamental,  but  noisy .  109 

A  Conspicuous  Landmark .  115 

The  Trail  to  the  Capital .  116 

A  Glimpse  of  the  Interior .  117 

View  of  the  Capital .  118 

A  Popular  Thoroughfare .  119 

Church  of  Merced  and  Indepen¬ 
dence  Monument,  Comayagua .  120 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xii 


Rubber  Hunters  . 121 

The  Pita  Plant .  122 

Harvesting  one  of  the  Staples. . . .  123 

The  Floating  Population .  124 

Branch  of. the  Ilubber-tree . 125 

A  Modern  Town . 126 

Up  the  River .  127 

A  Mining  Settlement .  128 

View  in  Nicaragua .  129 

An  Interior  Plain .  130 

One  of  the  Back  Streets .  132 

Plaza  of  Tegucigalpa . 133 

Making  Tortillas .  134 

Indigo  Works .  135 

The  Tlachiguero .  136 

View  of  Lake  from  Beach  at  Ma¬ 
nagua.. .  139 

Coriuto .  140 

Hide-covered  Cart .  141 

An  Interior  Town .  143 

The  Indigo  Plant .  144 

The  King  of  the  Mosquitoes .  145 

A  Mahogany  Swamp .  148 

Internal  Commerce .  149 

How  the  Peons  live .  150 

A  Familiar  Scene .  152 

A  Country  Chapel .  153 

The  United  States  Consulate  ....  154 

Cathedral  of  St.  Peter,  Leon .  155 

The  Pacific  Coast  of  Nicaragua. .  158 

Autics  on  the  Bridge .  159 

In  the  Upper  Zone .  161 

Volcanoes  of  Axusco  and  Momo- 
tornbo,  from  the  Cathedral. . . .  162 
Volcano  of  Cosequina,  from  the 

Sea .  163 

La  Union  and  Volcano  of  Con- 

chagua .  164 

The  Fate  of  Filibusters .  165 

A  Farming  Settlement .  167 

The  Quesal . 168 

Landing  at  La  Libertad .  173 

En  Route  to  the  Interior . 175 

The  Peak  of  San  Salvador .  177 

The  Plaza .  179 

Spanish-American  Courtship ....  180 

A  Hacienda .  182 

Interior  of  a  San  Salvador  House  183 
A  Typical  Town .  185 


What  alarms  the  Citizens .  186 

Yzalco  from  a  Distance .  189 

Yzalco .  191 

In  the  Interior .  193 

Hauling  Sugar-cane .  194 

Crater  of  a  Volcano  . .  197 

Rubber-trees .  199 

The  Road  from  Port  Limon  to  San 

Jose .  201 

A  Peon .  203 

A  Banana  Plantation .  206 

Picking  Coffee .  209 

The  Marimba .  215 

Coffee-drying .  217 

Don  Bernardo  de  Soto,  President 

of  Costa  Rica .  222 

Barranquilla .  226 

Carth'agena .  227 

Entrance  to  the  Old  Fortress,  Cnr- 

thagena .  280 

Colombian  Military  Men .  233 

On  the  Magdalena . 235 

Colombian  ’Gators .  237 

Vegetable  Ivory  Plant .  239 

En  Route  to  Bogota . 241 

Sabana  of  Bogota . 243 

Santa  Fe  de  Bogota .  245 

Monument  in  the  Plaza  of  Los 

Martirs .  246 

Plaza,  and  Statue  of  Bolivar  ....  247 

Going  to  the  Market . 249 

A  Caballero . 250 

An  Orchid .  251 

Over  the  Mountains  in  a  “Silla”.  253 
Natural  Bridge  of  Pandi, Colombia  255 
Don  Rafael  Nunez,  President. . . .  256 
Waiting  for  the  New  York  Steam¬ 
er .  259 

In  the  Suburbs  of  La  Guayra. . . .  261 

Still  more  Suburban .  263 

On  a  Coffee  Plantation .  267 

On  a  Back  Street .  269 

Interior  Court  of  a  Caracas  House  273 

Spanish  Missionary  Work .  276 

Woman’s  chief  Occupation . 277 

A  Bodega .  279 

A  Glass  of  Aguardiente .  281 

A  Venezuela  Belle .  283 

The  Lower  Floor  of  the  House  . .  285 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


xiii 


PAGE  I 


An  Old  Patio .  289 

Chocolate  in  the  Rough .  293 

Separating  the  Cocoa-beans . 294 

Puerto  Cabello . .  296 

Along  the  Coast .  299 

The  River  at  Guayaquil .  301 

The  River  above  Guayaquil .  303 

An  average  Dwelling .  304 

Guayaquil .  305 

A  Person  of  Influence .  306 

A  Family  Circle .  307 

Cathedral  at  Guayaquil,  built  of 

Bamboo .  308 

A  Commercial  Thoroughfare.  . .  309 

The  President’s  Palace .  310 

The  Outskirts  of  Guayaquil . 311 

A  Business  of  Importance .  312 

A  Pineapple  Farm .  313 

A  Water  Merchant .  314 

A  Freight  Train  on  the  Way.  . . .  315 

A  Passenger  Train .  316 

The  Common  Carrier .  317 

Hotel  on  the  Route  to  Quito  ....  318 
Waiting  for  the  Mules  to  Feed. .  319 

En  Route  to  the  Sea .  320 

Somewhere  near  the  Summit. . . .  321 

The  Altar .  323 

A  Street  in  Quito . '.  324 

Where  Pizarro  first  Landed . 325 

Equipped  for  the  Andes . 327 

The  Old  Inca  Trail .  329 

A  Typical  Country  Mansion . 331 

A  Wayside  Shrine .  332 

Charcoal  Peddler .  333 

Government  Building  at  Quito. .  335 

Court  of  a  Quito  Dwelling . 336 

What  the  Earthquakes  left .  338 

A  Professional  Beggar . 339 

An  Ecuador  Belle .  340 

A  Hotel  on  the  Coast .  343 

Customs  Officers .  346 

A  Home  on  the  Coast .  347 

Peruvian  Soldier  audRabona. . . .  349 

Looking  Seaward .  352 

A  Boatman  on  the  Coast . 354 

Lima  and  its  Environs .  356 

A  Peruvian  Interior .  358 

Grand  Plaza,  Lima .  363 

A  Peruvian  Chamber .  366 


Interior  of  a  Lima  Dwelling . 368 

A  Peruvian  Palace .  369 

A  Peruvian  Belle .  370 

Watching  the  Procession .  371 

The  Daughter  of  the  Incas . 373 

Ruins  of  the  War .  375 

Interior  of  the  ordinary  Sort  of 

House .  378 

A  very  Common  Spectacle .  379 

A  Peruvian  Mi’k-peddler .  381 

Mindless  of  Care . 383 

View  of  Cuzco  and  the  Nevado 
of  Asungata  from  the  Brow  of 

the  Sacsahuaman .  389 

Between  Battles,  Balls .  393 

A  Warrior  at  Rest .  397 

Gate-way  to  the  Andes .  399 

Henry  Meiggs .  402 

The  Heart  of  the  Andes .  404 

An  Inca  Reminiscence .  405 

Cowhide  Bridge  over  the  Rimac.  407 
Inca  Ruins  of  Unknown  Age. . . .  408 
A  Settlement  of  this  Century. . .  .  409 
A  City  of  Four  Centuries  Ago  . .  410 

A  Bit  of  Inca  Architecture .  411 

Relic  of  a  Past  Civilization .  412 

Ruins  of  the  Temple  of  the  Sun.  .  413 

An  Old  Settler .  414 

Fresh  from  the  Tomb .  414 

Where  Peru’s  Wealth  came  from  417 

A  Peruvian  Port .  419 

The  Old  Trail .  420 

Arequipa .  421 

The  Vicuna .  424 

Lake  Titicaca .  425 

A  Street  in  Cuzco .  428 

Ruins  of  an  Inca  Temple .  429 

Convent  of  Santa  Domingo, Cuzco  430 

What  the  Spaniards  left .  431 

Where  the  Guano  Lies .  432 

A  Nitrate  Mining  Towm . 433 

Guano  Islands .  435 

Across  the  Continent .  437 

A  Station  on  the  Road .  438 

Chasquis  at  Rest  .  440 

Chasquis  Asleep  in  the  Mountains  441 

A  Bit  of  La  Paz . . .  442 

The  Cathedral  at  La  Paz .  443 

An  Ancient  Bridge  in  La  Paz.  . .  .  445 


XIV 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 


PAGE 


A  Bolivian  Elevator . 

A  Bolivian  Cavalryman . 

A  Home  in  the  Andes . 

Juan  Fernandez . 

Cumberland  Bay . 

Tablet  to  Alexander  Selkirk . 

The  Harbor  of  Valparaiso . 

Victoria  Street,  Valparaiso . 

Santa  Lucia . 

The  Zama-cuaca . 

Exposition  Building,  Sautiago. . . 
Statue  of  Bernard  O’Higgins,  San¬ 
tiago  . 

Patrick  Lynch  . . . . 

Peons  of  Chili . 

The  ‘  ‘  Esmeralda  ” . 

Inca  Queen  and  Princess . 

Senora  Cousino . 

A  Belle  of  Chili  dressed  for  Morn¬ 
ing  Mass . 

A  Solid  Silver  Spur . 

Over  the  Andes . 

Mount  Aconcagua . 

Uspallata  Pass . 

Caught  in  the  Snow . 

Road  Cut  in  the  Rocks . 

A  Station  in  the  Mountains . 

The  Condor . 

Cape  Froward  (Patagonia),  Strait 

of  Magellan . 

Fuegians  Visiting  a  Man-of-war . . 

A  Fuegian  Feast . 

The  Signs  of  Civilization . 

Port  Famiue . 

Starvation  Beach . 

Use  of  Lasso  and  Bolas . 

In  their  Ostrich  Robes . 

A  Patagonian  Belle . 

The  Guanaco . 

Patagonian  Indians . 

The  Harbor,  Buenos  Ayres . 

The  City  of  Buenos  Ayres . 

Loading  Cargo  at  Buenos  Ayres. 
Going  Ashore  at  Buenos  Ayres  . . 
A  Private  Residence  in  Buenos 

Ayres . 

The  Colon  Theatre,  Buenos  Ayres 

An  Argentine  Ranchman . 

The  Cathedral  of  Buenos  Ayres.. 


446 

447 

448 

450 

451 
453 
455 
459 
467 
469 
471 

474 

475 
477 
481 
485 
491  | 

497  i 

505  ! 

506 

507  I 
509  | 

511 

512 

513  ! 
515 


517 

519 

521 

523 

526 

529 

531 

532 

533 
539 

541 

542 
545 

548 

549 

552 

554 

564 

567 


The  Gaucho .  570 

General  Rosas .  573 

Palace  of  Don  Manuel  Rosas. . . .  575 
Map  of  the  Argentine  Republic. .  580 
Country  Scene  in  the  Argentine 

Republic .  584 

Juarez  Celman,  President  of  the 

Argentine  Republic .  587 

The  City  of  Montevideo,  looking 

towards  the  Harbor .  591 

Harbor  of  Montevideo .  593 

Maximo  Santos,  of  Uruguay. . . .  595 

One  of  the  Old  Streets .  597 

Montevideo — the  Ocean  Side - 603 

Scene  in  Montevideo  . 608 

Gaspar  Francia,  First  President 

of  Paraguay .  624 

Street’  in  Asuncion .  625 

Lopez,  the  Tyrant .  626 

After  the  War .  627 

Asuncion,  from  the  West . 628 

Asuncion — the  Palace  and  Cathe¬ 
dral .  629 

Wreck  of  the  Old  Cathedral . 631 

Station  on  the  Asuncion  Railway .  633 

A  Visit  to  the  Spring .  634 

The  Paraguayans  at  Home .  635 

Paraguay  Flower-girl .  636 

Remains  of  the  Palace  of  Lopez..  637 

Interior  of  the  Lopez  Palace . 639 

The  Cathedral,  Asuncion .  640 

Market-place  at  Asuncion. .  -  641 

A  Paraguay  Horseman .  642 

Paraguay  Belles . 643 

Costumes  of  the  Interior . 644 

An  Interior  Town .  645 

Home,  Sweet  Home .  646 

The  Mandioca .  647 

Ox-cart  on  the  Pampas .  649 

Curing  Yerba  Mate . 650 

A  Siesta .  651 

A  Paraguay  Hotel .  653 

Native  Pappoose  and  Cradle  ...  654 

A  Hacienda .  655 

People  of  “El  Gran  Chaco  ....  656 

An  Armadillo .  657 

A  Ranch  on  El  Gran  Chaco . 658 

Bay  of  Rio  de  Janeiro .  661 

A  Street  in  Rio .  •  •  •  662 


ILLUSTRATIONS.  XV 


The  City  of  Rio  from  the  Bay. . .  663 

Aqueduct  at  Rio .  665 

The  Avenue  of  Royal  Palms — 

Rio  . .  666 

The  Prettiest  Things  in  Brazil . . .  667 

A  Brazilian  Hacienda .  669 

The  Old  City  Palace .  671 

In  the  Suburbs .  672 

Cottages  in  the  Interior .  673 

The  Iguana .  675 

A  Brazilian  Laundry .  676 

A  Country  School .  677 

Brazilian  Country-house .  679 

Up  the  River .  681 


Dom  Pedro  II .  682 

On  the  Way  to  Petropolis .  683 

The  Empress  of  Brazil .  685 

Dom  Pedro’s  Palace  at  Petrop¬ 
olis .  687 

Tbe  Colored  Saint .  691 

Statue  of  Dom  Pedro  1 .  693 

Carrying  Coffee  to  the  Steamer. .  696 
Market-place  in  Country  Town . .  697 
“  Sereno-o-o-o-o-o !  Sereno-o-o-o- 

o-o !” .  699 

Slave  Quarters  in  the  Country. . .  702 

The  Political  Issue  in  Brazil .  703 

Military  Men .  705 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


MEXICO. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  MEXICO. 

With  the  exception  of  Buenos  Ayres  and  Santiago,  Chili, 
the  city  of  Mexico  is  the  largest  and  the  finest  capital  in 
Spanish  America ;  but  unfortunately  the  shadow  of  the  six¬ 
teenth  century  still  rests  upon  it.  It  wounds  the  pride  of  the 
Yankee  tourist  to  discover  that  so  little  of  our  boasted  influ¬ 
ence  has  lapped  over  the  border,  and  that  the  historic  halls  of 
the  Montezumas  are  only  spattered  with  the  modern  ideas  we 
exemplify.  The  native  traveller  still  prefers  his  donkey  to 
the  railroad  train,  and  carries  a  burden  upon  his  back  instead 
of  using  a  wagon.  Water  is  still  peddled  about  the  capital 
of  Mexico  in  jars,  and  the  native  farmer  uses  a  plough  whose 
pattern  was  old  in  the  days  of  Moses.  Nowhere  do  ancient 
and  modern  customs  come  into  such  intimate  contrast  as  in 
the  city  of  Mexico. 

The  people  are  highly  civilized  in  spots.  Besides  the  most 
novel  and  recent  product  of  modern  science,  one  finds  in  use 
the  crudest,  rudest  implement  of  antiquity.  Types  of  four 
centuries  can  be  seen  in  a  single  group  in  any  of  the  plazas. 
Under  the  finest  palaces,  whose  ceilings  are  frescoed  by  Italian 
artists,  whose  walls  are  covered  with  the  rarest  paintings,  and 
shelter  libraries  selected  with  the  choicest  taste,  one  finds 
a  common  bodega,  where  the  native  drink  is  dealt  out  in 
1 


2 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


gourds,  and  the  peon  stops  to  eat  his  tortilla.  Women  and 
men  are  seen  carrying  upon  their  heads  enormous  burdens 
through  streets  lighted  by  electricity,  and  stop  to  ask  through 
a  telephone  where  their  load  shall  be  delivered. 

The  corresjiondence  of  the  Government  is  dictated  to  ste¬ 
nographers  and  transcribed  upon  type-  writers ;  and  every 
form  of  modern  improvement  for  the  purpose  of  economizing 


IT  WAS  USED  rx  THE  DATS  OF  MOSES. 


when  he  came  into  power,  until  1S89,  when  his  third  term 
commenced,  may  be  reckoned  the  progressive  age  of  our 
neighborly  republic;  but  the  common  people  are  still  prej¬ 
udiced  against  innovations,  and  resist  them.  In  all  the  pub¬ 
lic  places,  and  at  the  entrance  of  the  post-office,  are  men 
squatting  upon  the  pavement,  with  an  inkhorn  and  a  pad 
of  paper,  whose  business  is  to  conduct  the  correspondence 
of  those  whose  literary  attainments  are  unequal  to  the  task. 
Such  odd  things  are  still  to  be  seen  at  the  capital  of  a  na¬ 
tion  that  subsidizes  steamship  lines  and  railways,  and  sup¬ 
ports  schools  where  all  the  modern  languages  and  sciences 
are  taught,  and  has  a  compulsory  education  law  upon  its 
statute-books.  In  the  old  Inquisition  Building,  where  the 


MEXICO. 


bodies  of  Jews  and  heretics  have  been  racked  and  roasted, 
is  a  medical  college,  sustained  by  the  Government  for  the 
free  education  of  all  students  whose  attainments  reach  the 
standard  of  matriculation ;  and  bones  are  now  sawn  asunder 
in  the  name  of  science  instead  of  rehgion. 

The  country  within  whose  limits  can  be  produced  every 
plant  that  grows  between  the  equator  and  the  arctics,  and 
whose  mines  have  yielded  one-half  of  the  existing  silver  in 
the  world,  is  habitually  bankrupt,  and  wooden  effigies  of 
saints  stolen  from  the 
churches  are  sold  as  fuel 
for  locomotives  purchased 
with  the  proceeds  of  pub¬ 
lic  taxation.  What  Mex¬ 
ico  needs  most  is  peace, 
industry,  and  education. 

The  Government  now 
pays  a  bounty  to  steam¬ 
ships  upon  every  immi¬ 
grant  they  bring,  and  is 
importing  coolie  labor  to 
develop  the  coffee  and 
sugar  lands.  Since  1876 
there  has  not  been  a  po¬ 
litical  revolution  of  any 
importance,  and  the  pros¬ 
pect  of  permanent  peace 
is  hopeful. 

The  political  struggle 
in  Mexico,  since  the  in-  A  water-carrier. 

dependence  of  the  Ee- 

pubhc,  has  been,  and  will  continue  to  be,  between  anti¬ 
quated,  bigoted,  and  despotic  Eomanism,  allied  with  the  an¬ 
cient  aristocracy,  under  whose  encouragement  Maximilian 
came,  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  spirit  of  intellectual,  industrial, 
commercial,  and  social  progress  on  the  other.  The  pendulum 
has  swung  backward  and  forward  with  irregularity  for  sixty 


4 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


years ;  every  vibra¬ 
tion  lias  been  regis¬ 
tered  in  blood.  All 
of  the  weight  of 
Romish  influence,  in¬ 
tellectual,  financial, 
and  spiritual,  has 
been  employed  to  de¬ 
stroy  the  Republic 


RTJINS  OF  THE  COVERED  WAV  TO 
THE  INQUISITION. 


and  restore  the  Mon¬ 
arch!',  while  the  Liberal  party  lias  strangled  the  Church  and 
stripped  it  of  every  possession.  Both  factions  have  fought 
under  a  black  flag,  and  the  war  has  been  as  cruel  and  vin¬ 
dictive  on  one  side  as  upon  the  other ;  but  the  result  is  ap¬ 


parent  and  permanent, 

Xo  priest  dare  wear  a  cassock  in  the  streets  of  Mexico ;  the 
confessional  is  public,  parish  schools  are  prohibited,  and  al¬ 
though  the  clergy  still  exercise  a  powerful  influence  among 
the  common  people,  whose  superstitious  ignorance  has  not 
yet  been  reached  by  the  free  schools  and  compulsory  educa¬ 
tion  law,  in  politics  they  are  powerless.  The  old  clerical 
party,  the  Spanish  aristocracy,  whose  forefathers  came  o\  ei 
after  the  Conquest,  and  reluctantly  surrendered  to  Indian  dom- 


MEXICO. 


5 


ination  when  the  Viceroys  were  driven  out  and  the  Republic 
established,  have  given  up  the  struggle,  and  will  probably 
never  attempt  to  renew  it.  They  were  responsible  for  the 
tragic  episode  of  Maximilian,  and  still  regret  the  failure  to 
restore  the  Monarchy.  The  Aztecs  sit  again  upon  the  throne 
of  Mexico,  after  an  interval  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
and  the  men  whose  minds  direct  the  affairs  of  the  Republic 
have  tawny  skins  and  straight  black  hair. 

Several  of  the  aristocrats  have  left  the  country  and  reside 
in  Paris,  receiving  enormous  revenues  from  their  Mexican 
estates,  which  they  visit  biennially,  but  will  not  live  upon. 
Others  are  friends  of 
Diaz,  sympathize  with 
the  progressive  element, 
and  will  turn  out  full- 
fledged  Republicans 
wThen  the  issue  is  raised 
again.  The  finest  houses 
in  Mexico  are  unoccu¬ 
pied,  and  the  palatial  vil¬ 
las  of  Tacubaya,  the  aris¬ 
tocratic  suburb,  are  in  a 
state  of  decay.  They  are 
too  large  and  too  costly 
for  rental,  and  the  own¬ 
ers  are  too  obstinate  and 
indifferent  to  sell  them. 

Perhaps  these  haughty 
dons  still  have  a  hope  of 
coming  back  some  time 
to  rule  again  as  they  did 
years  ago,  but  they  will  die  as  they  have  lived  since  Maximil¬ 
ian’s  failure,  impotent  but  unreconciled. 

The  beautiful  castle  of  Chapultepec,  which  was  dismantled 
during  the  last  revolution,  but  has  been  restored  and  fitted  up 
as  a  beautiful  suburban  retreat  for  the  Presidents  of  Mexico, 
was  occupied  by  Maximilian  and  Carlotta  in  imitation  of  the 


6 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Montezumas,  whose  palace  stood  upon  the  rocky  eminence. 
Around  the  place  is  a  grove  of  monstrous  cypress-trees,  whose 
age  is  numbered  by  the  centuries,  and  whose  girth  measures 

from  thirty  to  fifty1'  feet.  It 
is  the  finest  assemblage  of 
arborial  monarchs  on  the 
continent,  and  sheltered  im¬ 
perial  power  hundreds  of 
years  before  Columbus  set 
his  westward  sails.  Before 
the  Hemisphere  was  knoVn 
or  thought  of,  here  stood  a 
gorgeous  palace, and  its  foun¬ 
dations  still  endure.  Here 
the  rigid  ceremonial  eti¬ 
quette  of  Aztec  imperialism 
was  enforced,  and  human 
sacrifice  was  made  to  in¬ 
voke  the  favor  of  the  Sun. 

In  Mexican  society  one 
meets  many  notable  people ; 
some  are  remarkable  for  tal¬ 
ent,  or  their  birth,  etc.,  and 
others  for  the  strange  vicissitudes  of  their  lives.  For  example, 
in  an  obscure  little  house  lives  a  well-educated  gentleman  who 
is,  by  lineal  descent  from  Montezuma  II.,  the  legal  heir  to  the 
Aztec  throne,  and  should  be  Emperor  of  Anahuac.  This  Senor 
Montezuma,  however,  indulges  in  no  idle  dream  of  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  the  ancient  Empire,  and  quietly  accepts  the  meagre  pen¬ 
sion  paid  him  by  the  Government.  In  contradistinction  to  this 
scion  of  the  house  of  Montezuma,  the  heirs  of  Cortez  receive 
immense  revenues  from  the  estates  of  the  “  Marquis  del  Valle  ” 
(Cortez),  live  in  grand  style,  and  are  haughty  and  influential. 
There  is  also  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  Indian  emperor 
Chimalpopoca,  This  young  man  is  a  civil  engineer,  indus¬ 
trious,  and  quite  independent. 

The  acknowledged  hem  to  the  throne  of  Mexico  is  young 


SITOPS. 


CASTLE  OF  CHAPULTEPEC 


MEXICO. 


9 


Augustin  Yturbide,  according  to  the  feelings  of  the  few  and 
feeble  remnants  of  the  Monarchical  party;  but  it  may  be  said 
to  the  young  man’s  credit  that  he  entirely  repudiates  their 
homage,  although  he  is  the  heir  to  two  brief  and  ill-starred 
dynasties.  He  is  the  grandson  of  the  Emperor  Augustin 
Yturbide,  and  the 
adopted  heir  of  Maxi¬ 
milian  and  Carlotta. 

The  Yturbide  they 
call  “Emperor”  was 
an  officer  in  the  Span¬ 
ish  army  when  Mexi- 
ico  was  a  colony,  and 
during  the  revolution 
headed  by  the  priest 
Hidalgo,  in  1810,  he 
fought  on  the  side  of 
the  King.  But,  being 
dismissed  from  the 
army  in  1816,  he  re¬ 
tired  to  seclusion,  to 
remain  until  the  move¬ 
ment  of  1820,  when  he 
placed  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  irregular 
force,  and  captured  a 
large  sum  of  money 
that  was  being  con¬ 
veyed  to  the  sea-coast. 

With  these  resources 
he  promulgated  what 
is  known  in  history  as 


“  the  plan  of  Iguala,”  tile  front. 

which  proposed  the 

organization  of  Mexico  into  an  independent  empire,  and  the 
election  of  a  ruler  by  the  people.  The  revolution  was  blood¬ 
less,  and  in  May,  1822,  Yturbide  proclaimed  himself  Emperor, 


10 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


declared  the  crown  hereditary,  and  established  a  court.  He 
was  formally  crowned  in  the  July  following,  but  in  Decem¬ 
ber  Santa  Anna  proclaimed  the  Republic,  and  after  a  brief 
and  ignominious  reign  Yturbide  left  Mexico  on  May  11, 1S22, 
just  a  year,  lacking  a  week,  from  the  date  he  assumed  power. 
The  Congress  gave  him  a  pension  of  §25,000  yearly,  and  re- 


THE  TBEE  OF  MONTEZUMA. 


quired  that  he  should  live  in  Italy ;  but  impelled  by  an  insan6 
desire  to  regain  his  crown,  in  May,  1821,  he  returned  to  Mex¬ 
ico.  and  was  shot  in  the  following  July. 

He  left  a  son.  Angel  de  Yturbide,  who  came  to  the  United 
States  with  his  mother,  and  was  educated  at  the  Jesuit  Col¬ 
lege  at  Georgetown,  District  of  Columbia,  the  Government 
having  given  them  a  liberal  pension.  There  he  fell  in  love 


PRINCE  YTURBIDE. 


MEXICO. 


13 


Avith  Miss  Alice  Green,  the  daughter  of  a  modest  but  pros¬ 
perous  merchant  of  the  town,  and  married  her.  They  had 
one  child,  the  so  •  called  Prince  Augustin,  Avho,  when  three 
years  old,  Avith  the  consent  of  his  ambitious  mother,  Avas 
adopted  by  the  childless  Maximilian  and  Carlotta,  in  the 
vain  hope  that  the  act  might  in  a  measure  increase  their 
popularity  among  the  Mexicans. 

Meanwhile  Maximilian’s  fate  was  fast  o\Tertaking  him. 
When  he  saw  the  catastrophe  was  at  hand,  he  determined  to 
sa\re  the  young  Yturbide,  and  with  the  assistance  of  the  Arch¬ 
bishop  of  Mexico  notified  Madame  Yturbide  that  her  child 
would  be  placed  on  a  certain  steamer  reaching  Havana  at 
such  a  date ;  and  it  was  there  the  mother  was  united  to  him 
after  a  separation  of  tAvo  years.  Maximilian  and  Carlotta 
had  surrounded  the  young  prince  with  all  the  elegancies  of 
royalty,  and  he  retained  many  of  their  royal  gifts.  His  fa¬ 
ther  was  then  dead,  and  his  mother  had  sole  charge  of  his 
education.  He  Avas  educated  at  Washington,  Avhere  Madame 
Yturbide  lived  in  a  fine  house  on  the  corner  of  Nineteenth 
and  N  streets.  When  her  son  came  of  age  she  sold  her  house 
and  returned  Avith  him  to  Mexico.  His  intention  was  to  enter 
the  army  at  once,  but  by  the  advice  of  his  Mexican  friends  he 
entered  the  national  military  college  for  a  course  of  study  be¬ 
fore  talcing  his  commission.  He  is  a  handsome  young  man, 
ATery  quiet  and  prepossessing.  His  abilities  can  scarcely  be 
judged  so  far,  but  he  has  always  conducted  himself  Avith  great 
good-sense.  Madame  Yturbide  is  noAV  with  him  in  Mexico. 
One  of  the  most  promising  signs  of  the  permanency  of  the 
Republic  is  the  presence  in  the  party  of  progress  of  this 
young  man,  whose  name  represents  all  the  ancient  aristocracy 
desires  to  restore.  He  has  inherited  two  worthless  crests ; 
but,  Avhether  from  policy  or  principle,  has  added  his  youthful 
strength  and  the  traditions  that  surround  his  name  to  the 
support  of  the  Diaz  administration. 

The  AvidoAv  of  General  Santa  Anna  is  a  Avoman  who  played 
a  prominent  part  in  the  political  tragedies  that  have  succeeded 
one  another  with  such  great  rapidity  upon  the  Mexican  stage. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


14 


» 

Until  her  death  in  the  autumn  of  1886,  she  was  an  object  of 
interest  to  all  visitors  to  the  capital,  and  always  welcomed 
cordially  strangers  ,who  called  upon  her,  provided  they  would 
permit  her  to  smoke  her  cigarettes,  and  talk  about  her  beauty 
and  the  attentions  she  had  received  in  the  past. 

Santa  Anna  is  not  so  highly  estimated  in  Mexico  as  in 
some  other  parts  of  the  world  where  people  are  not  so  famil¬ 
iar  with  his  eccentric  and  adventurous  career.  He  was  a  man 
of  remarkable  natural  abilities,  force  of  character,  energy,  and 
personal  courage,  but  devoid  of  principle,  education,  culture, 
and  mindful  only  of  his  own  interests.  lie  served  all  politi¬ 
cal  parties  in  turn.  She  was  his  second  wife,  and  was  only 
thirteeyi  years  old  when  he  married  her,  in  the  fifth  term  of 
his  presidency,  and  when  he  was  trying  to  set  himself  up  as 
an  absolute  monarch.  For  twenty  years  her  life  was  spent  in 
a  camp,  surrounded  by  the  whirl  of  warfare.  Her  husband 
was  five  times  President  of  Mexico,  and  four  times  Military 
Dictator  in  absolute  power.  He  was  banished,  recalled,  ban¬ 
ished  again,  and  finally  (bed,  denounced  by  all  as  a  traitor. 
She  had  seen  much  “  glory,”  and  had  received  unlimited  adu¬ 
lation,  but  she  hardly  ever  enjoyed  one  thorough^  peaceful 
month  in  her  life. 

It  created  a  sensation  in  Mexico  when  the  pretty  peon  girl, 
Dolores  Testa,  was  suddenly  raised  from  abject  poverty  to 
affluence.  The  Dictator  ordered  all  to  address  his  bride  as 
“Your  Highness,”  ladies-in- waiting  were  appointed  in  order 
to  teach  the  bewildered  little  Dolores  how  to  play  her  role  in 
the  great  world,  and  then  the  President  organized  for  her  a 
body-guard  of  twenty-five  military  men,  who  were  uniformed 
in  white  and  gold,  and  were  styled  “  los  Guardias  de  la  Alte- 
za”  (her  Highness’s  Body-guard).  When  the  President’s  wife 
attended  the  theatre  these  guards  rode  in  advance  of  and  at 
the  sides  of  the  coach,  each  bearing  a  lighted  torch.  During 
the  performance  they  remained  in  the  patio  ox  foyer  of  the 
theatre,  and  then  escorted  her  Highness  back  to  the  palace  in 
the  same  order.  Such  was  the  power  of  General  Santa  Anna 
in  those  days  that  even  the  clergy  bent  before  him ;  and  when 


GENERAL  GRANT  ON  A  BANANA  PLANTATION. 


MEXICO. 


17 


his  young  wife  went  to  mass,  the  priests,  attended  by  their 
acolytes,  actually  used  to  leave  the  cathedral  to  meet  her  on 
the  pavement,  and  with  cross  and  lighted  tapers  escort  her 
from  her  carriage  to  her  seat  within  the  church,  and  at  the 
conclusion  of  the  mass  accompanied  her  to  her  coach. 

Her  last  days  were  quite  in  contrast  with  the  glory  of  her 
youth.  She  owned  a  residence  in  the  city  and  a  lovely  coun¬ 
try-seat  in  Tacubaya,  the  aristocratic  suburb ;  her  wardrobes 
and  chests  were  filled  with  rich  robes  of  velvet,  satin,  and  silk, 
costly  laces,  and  magnificent  jewels ;  but  she  was  too  listless 
to  interest  herself  in  anything.  ISTo  stranger  who  by  chance 
might  see  her  ex-highness  at  home,  with  her  pretty  feet  thrust 
into  down-trodden  old  leather  shoes,  and  her  unkempt  hair 
covered  by  a  common  cotton  rebosa,  could  ever,  by  the  great¬ 
est  effort  of  imagination,  possibly  fancy  her  to  be  the  same 
person  who  once  dazzled  Mexico  by  a  display  of  pom])  that 
exceeded  even  that  of  the  Empress  Carlotta.  Mrs.  Santa 
Anna  was  an  estimable  woman,  but  was  almost  forgotten  by 
the  generation  that  once  bent  before  her.  Her  family  plate, 
and  the  diamond  snuffbox  which  was  presented  her  husband 
when  he  was  Dictator,  and  cost  twenty-five  thousand  dollars, 
were,  during  the  latter  years  of  her  life,  and  still  are,  in  the 
National  pawn-shops  of  Mexico,  and  his  wooden  leg,  captured 
in  battle  during  our  war  with  Mexico,  is  in  the  Smithsonian 
Institute. 

The  family  of  the  great  Juarez,  the  Washington  of  Mexico, 
an  Aztec  peon,  who  overthrew  the  empire  of  Maximilian  as 
Cortez  had  overthrown  the  ancient  dynasty  of  his  ancestors, 
live  in  good  style  in  the  city  of  Mexico,  the  daughters  being 
well  married,  and  the  son  the  secretary  of  the  Mexican  le¬ 
gation  at  Berlin.  They  all  talk  English  well,  and  are  very 
highly  educated.  Every  American  who  visits  their  city  is 
handsomely  entertained  by  them. 

But  time  spent  in  conjecturing  the  future  of  the  aristocratic 
or  clerical  party  is  wholly  wasted.  ISTo  priest,  no  bishop,  is 
allowed  by  law  to  hold  real  estate ;  titles  vested  in  religious 
orders  are  worthless;  the  Church  is  forbidden  to  acquire 
2 


18 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


wealth,  and  has  been  stripped  of  the  accumulated  treasures 
of  three  centuries.  The  candlesticks  and  altar  ornaments  are 
gilt  instead  of  gold,  and  the  heavy  embroideries  in  gold  and 
silver  have  been  replaced  by  tinsel.  A  solid  silver  balustrade 
which  has  stood  in  one  of  the  churches  since  the  time  of  Cor¬ 
tez  was  torn  down  not  long  ago  and  taken  to  the  mint,  and 
a  chandelier  in  the  cathedral  of  Puebla,  when  it  was  melted, 
made  sixty  thousand  silver  dollars. 

There  still  stands  in  the  cathedral  at  Guadalupe,  on  the 
spot  where  the  Mother  of  Christ  appeared  to  a  poor  shepherd 
and  stamped  her  image  in  beautiful  colors  upon  his  cotton 
scrape,  a  double  railing  from  the  altar  to  the  choir,  perhaps 
sixty  feet  long  and  three  feet  high,  Avhich  is  said  to  be  of  solid 
silver,  with  considerable  gold.  This  is  the  only  one  of  the 
remnants  of  pontifical  magnificence  which  remains  unde¬ 
spoiled,  for  the  superstition  which  pervades  all  classes  of  soci¬ 
ety  has  protected  it ;  but  the  altars  have  been  stripped  of  the 
jewels  which  were  bestowed  by  grateful  people  who  had  re¬ 
ceived  the  protection  of  the  Virgin,  who  watches  over  those 
in  distress,  and  the  veneering  of  gold  which  once  covered  the 
altar  carvings  has  all  been  ripped  off.  It  is  said  that  an  enter¬ 
prising'  American  offered  to  replace  the  solid  silver  railing 
with  a  plated  one,  and  give  a  bonus  of  three  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  to  the  Church,  but  the  proposition  was  rejected. 

This  Guadalupe  shrine  is  the  most  sacred  spot  in  Mexico, 
and  to  it  come,  on  the  12th  of  each  December,  the  anniversary 
of  the  appearance  of  the  Virgin,  thousands  upon  thousands  of 
pilgrims,  bringing  their  sick  and  lame  and  blind  to  drink  of 
the  miraculous  waters  of  a  spring  which  the  Virgin  opened 
on  the  mountain-side  to  convince  the  sceptical  shepherd  of 
her  divine  power.  The  waters  have  a  very  strong  taste  of 
sulphur,  and  are  said  to  be  a  potent  remedy  for  diseases  of 
the  blood.  In  testimony  of  this  the  walls  of  the  chapel, 
which  is  built  over  the  spring,  are  covered  with  quaint,  rudely 
written  certificates  of  people  who  claim  to  have  been  miracu¬ 
lously  cured  by  its  use.  In  the  cathedral  are  multitudes  of 
other  testimonials  from  people  who  have  been  preserved  from 


MEXICO. 


19 


death,  in  clanger  by  having  appealed  for  protection  to  the 
Virgin  of  Guadalupe ;  but  nowadays,  instead  of  sending  jew¬ 
els  and  other  articles  of  value  as  they  did  when  the  Church 
was  able  to  protect  its  property,  they  hang  up  gaudily  painted 
inscriptions  reciting  specifically  the  blessings  they  have  re¬ 
ceived.  On  the  crest  of  the  hill  is  a  massive  shaft  of  stone, 
representing  the  main-mast  of  a  ship  with  the  yards  out  and 


CHURCH  OF  GUADALUPE. 


sails  spread.  This  was  erected  many  years  ago  by  a  sea-cap¬ 
tain  who  was  caught  in  a  storm  at  sea,  and  who  made  a  vow 
to  the  Virgin  that  if  she  would  bring  him  safe  to  land  he 
would  carry  his  main-mast  and  sails  to  Guadalupe,  and  raise 
them  there  as  an  evidence  of  his  gratitude  for  her  mercy.  He 
fulfilled  his  vow,  and  within  the  double  tiers  of  stone  are  the 
masts  and  canvas. 

In  the  cathedral  is  the  original  blanket,  or  serape ,  which 


2CK 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


IZTACCIHUATL. 


the  shepherd  wore 
when  the  Virgin 
appeared  to  him, 
and  upon  which 
she  stamped  her 
portrait.  It  is  pre¬ 
served  in  a  glass 
case  over  the  al¬ 
tar,  and  may  be 
seen  by  paying  a 
small  fee  to  the 
priest.  Copies  of 
the  Guadalupe  Vir¬ 
gin  are  common 
and  familiar;  one 
can  scarcely  look 


MEXICO. 


21 


in  any  direction  in  Mexico  without  seeing  the  representation 
upon  the  walls  of  a  house,  or  pendent  from  the  watch-chain 
of  a  passer-by;  but  the  average  reproduction  is  a  great  im¬ 
provement  upon  the  original,  which  is  a  dull  and  heavy  daub, 
without  any  evidences  of  skill  in  its  execution,  or  even  the 
average  degree  of  accuracy  in  drawing.  According  to  the 
story,  the  portrait  was  stamped  upon  the  serape  or  blanket  of 
the  shepherd,  and  this  all  Catholics  in  Mexico  devoutly  be¬ 
lieve  ;  but  a  close  examination  reveals  the  fact  that  it  is  done 
in  ordinary  oil  colors,  upon  a  piece  of  ordinary  canvas,  and 
that  the  pigments  peel  olf  like  those  of  any  poorly  executed 
piece  of  work. 

In  the  ancient  town  of  Guadalupe,  in  a  house  near  the 
cathedral,  was  signed  the  famous  treaty  determining  the  boun¬ 
dary  line  between  Mexico  and  the  United  States,  while  in  a 
cemetery  on  the  hill  General  Santa  Anna  lies  buried. 

The  Mexican  people,  like  all  the  Spanish  race,  are  fond  of 
ceremony,  but  the  inauguration  of  their  President  is  not  at¬ 
tended  with  so  much  display  or  interest  as  is  shown  on  simi¬ 
lar  occasions  on  this  side  of  the  Itio  Grande.  Perhaps  it  is 
because  the  event  occurs  so  often.  During  the  two  hundred 
and  eighty-six  years  between  the  fall  of  the  Empire  and  the 
establishment  of  the  Kepublic,  there  were  but  sixty-four  Vice¬ 
roys;  but  during  the  sixty-three  years  that  followed  there 
have  been  thirty -two  Presidents,  seven  Dictators,  and  two  Em¬ 
perors.  Although  the  constitutional  term  of  the  presidency 
is  four  years,  but  two  in  the  long  list  were  permitted  to  serve 
out  their  time,  and  they  were  the  last,  which  at  least  shows 
improvement  in  the  political  condition  of  the  country. 

I  witnessed  the  inauguration  of  President  Diaz  on  the  1st  of 
December,  1884.  The  ceremonies,  which  were  simple  enough 
to  satisfy  the  most  critical  of  Democrats,  took  place  in  the 
handsome  theatre  erected  in  1854,  and  named  in  honor  of  the 
Emperor  Yturbide.  It  is  now  called  the  Chamber  of  Deputies, 
and  is  occupied  by  the  lower  branch  of  the  National  Legislat¬ 
ure,  a  body  of  some  two  hundred  and  twenty-seven  men.  The 
Senate,  composed  of  fifty-six  members,  meets  in  a  long,  nar- 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


99 


row  room  in  the  old  National  Palace  which  was  formerly 
used  as  a  chapel  by  the  Viceroys.  The  viceregal  throne,  a 
massive  chair  of  carved  and  gilded  rosewood,  still  stands  upon 

a  platform  opposite  the 
entrance,  under  a  can¬ 
opy  of  crimson  velvet, 
but  upon  its  crest  is 
carved  the  American 
eagle,  with  a  snake  in 
its  mouth,  the  emblem 
of  Republican  Mexico. 
Maximilian  hung  a 
golden  crown  over  the 
eagle ;  Juarez  tore  it 
down  and  placed  the 
broken  sword  of  the 
Emperor  in  the  talons 
of  the  bird.  The  Az¬ 
tecs  say  that  the  found¬ 
ers  of  their  empire, 
whose  origin  is  lost  in 
the  mists  of  fable,  were 
told  to  march  on  until 
they  found  an  eagle  sitting  upon  a  cactus  with  a  snake  in  its 
mouth,  and  there  they  should  rest  and  build  a  great  city. 
The  bird  and  the  bush  were  discovered  in  the  valley  that  is 
shadowed  by  the  twin  volcanoes,  and  there  the  imperishable 
walls  were  laid  which  are  now  bidding  farewell  to  their  sev¬ 
enth  century. 

The  old  Theatre  Yturbide  has  not  been  remodelled  since  it 
became  the  shelter  of  legislative  power,  and  all  the  natural 
light  it  gets  is  filtered  through  the  opaque  panels  of  the 
dome,  so  that  during  the  day  sessions  the  Deputies  are  al¬ 
ways  in  a  state  of  partial  eclipse.  It  is  about  as  badly  off  for 
light  as  our  own  Congress.  The  members  occupy  comfort¬ 
able  arm-chairs  in  the  parquet,  arranged  in  semicircular  rows. 
The  presiding  officer  and  the  secretaries  sit  upon  the  stage, 


EX-rRESIDENT  GONZALES. 


MEXICO. 


23 


and  at  either  side  is  a  sort  of  pulpit  from  which  formal  ad¬ 
dresses  are  made,  although  conversational  debates  are  con¬ 
ducted  from  the  floor.  The  orchestra  circle  and  galleries  are 
divided  into  boxes,  and  are  reserved  for  spectators,  but  are  sel¬ 
dom  occupied,  as  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress  are  not  re¬ 
garded  with  much  public  interest. 


PRESIDENT  FORFIRIO  DIAZ. 

The  members  of  both  Houses  have  no  regular  seats,  but  sit 
where  they  please.  As  they  have  few  constituents  to  write 
to,  they  use  no  desks.  There  are  some  that  might  be  used, 


24 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


but  never  are.  The  members  vote  themselves  no  stationery, 
postage-stamps,  or  incidentals,  as  our  Congressmen  do,  but 
are  paid  two  hundred  and  fift}T  dollars  a  month  during  the 
two  years  for  which  they  are  elected.  Habit  and  the  exer¬ 
cise  of  military  power  have  reversed  the  constitutional  rela¬ 
tions  of  the  executive  and  legislative  branches  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment,  and  the  business  of  the  Congress  sometimes  is  not 
to  pass  bills  for  the  approval  or  disapproval  of  the  President, 
but  to  enact  such  legislation  as  he  recommends.  The  mem¬ 
bers  of  the  Cabinet  have  seats  in  both  houses  of  the  Congress, 
participate  in  the  debates,  and  submit  measures  for  considera¬ 
tion,  but  have  no  vote ;  and  the  President  himself  often  exer¬ 
cises  his  constitutional  right  to  meet  and  act  with  the  Legis¬ 
lature.  Very  seldom  is  a  law  passed  that  does  not  come 
prepared  and  approved  by  the  Executive  Department,  and  to 
oppose  the  policy  of  the  administration  is  usually  fatal  to  the 
ambition  of  Mexican  statesmen. 

In  appearance  the  members  will  compare  favorably  with 
those  of  our  Congress,  and  they  are  far  in  advance  of  the  aver¬ 
age  State  Legislature  in  ability  and  learning.  The  first  feat¬ 
ures  that  strike  a  visitor  familiar  with  legislative  bodies  in  the 
United  States  is  the  decorum  with  which  proceedings  are 
conducted,  and  the  scrupulous  care  with  which  every  one  is 
clothed.  On  certain  formal  occasions  it  is  usual  for  all  of  the 
members  to  appear  in  evening  dress,  which  gives  the  body  the 
appearance  of  a  social  gathering  rather  than  a  legislative  as¬ 
sembly.  Nine-tenths  of  the  members  are  white,  and  the  other 
tenth  show  little  trace  of  Aztec  blood.  There  is  never  any¬ 
thing  like  confusion,  and  the  laws  of  propriety  are  never  trans¬ 
gressed.  One  hears  no  bad  syntax  or  incorrect  pronunciation 
in  the  speeches ;  no  coarse  language  is  used,  and  no  wrangles 
ever  occur  like  those  which  so  often  disgrace  our  own  Con¬ 
gress.  The  statesmen  never  tilt  their  chairs  back,  nor  lounge 
about  the  chamber ;  their  feet  are  never  raised  upon  the  rail¬ 
ings  or  desks ;  there  is  no  letter- writing  going  on ;  the  floor  is 
never  littered  with  scraps  of  paper;  no  spittoons  are  to  be 
seen,  and  no  conversation  is  permitted.  Extreme  dignity  and 


MEXICO. 


25 


THE  DOME. 


decorum  mark  the  proceedings,  which  are  always  short  and 
silent,  and  the  solemnity  which  prevails  gives  a  funereal  as¬ 
pect  to  the  scene. 

But  everybody  smokes.  The  secretary  lights  a  cigarette  at 
the  end  of  a  roll-call,  and  the  chairman  blows  a  puff  of  smoke 


20 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


from  liis  lips  before  he  announces  a  decision.  The  members 
are  constantly  rolling  cigarettes  with  deft  fingers,  and  the 
people  in  the  galleries  do  the  same,  so  that  a  cloud  of  gray 
vapor  always  hangs  over  the  body,  and  in  the  dark  corners 
of  the  chamber  one  can  see  the  glow  of  burning  tobacco  like 
the  flash  of  fire-flies.  But  cigars  are  never  used,  nor  pipes, 
and  no  one  chews  tobacco. 

Whole  sessions  pass  away  with  nothing  but  formal  business, 
such  as  receiving  communications  from  the  Executives  of  the 
States  or  petitions  from  the  people,  which  are  rarely  acted 
on.  Occasionally  a  bill  is  passed,  but  it  passes  almost  as  a 
matter  of  course,  some  of  the  members  giving  a  delicate  little 
wave  of  the  hand  to  the  secretary  as  he  calls  their  names  by 
sight,  others  merely  smiling  at  him,  some  paying  no  attention 
whatever  to  him,  but  none  of  them  taking  the  trouble  to  open 
their  mouths  or  rise,  as  the  rules  require.  Weeks  and  months 
pass  away  without  a  speech  of  any  kind,  or  even  a  point  of 
order. 

In  the  presence  of  this  bod\q  and  with  a  similar  indiffer¬ 
ence,  Profirio  Diaz  was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United 
States  of  Mexico.  He  had  been  President  once  before,  bavins; 
seized  the  government  by  force  of  arms  from  Lerdo,  but  was 
so  just  and  wise  a  ruler,  and  possessed  the  confidence  of  the 
people  so  thoroughly,  that  he  was  allowed  to  serve  out  a  full 
term,  being  one  of  the  few  Mexican  Presidents  to  enjoy  that 
privilege.  lie  would  have  been  re-elected  at  the  expiration 
of  his  administration  but  for  a  constitutional  provision  pro¬ 
hibiting  it.  Four  years  passed  and  he  was  restored  to  power 
by  the  votes  of  the  people  against  a  man  whose  administra¬ 
tion  was  a  saturnalia  of  corruption  and  extravagance,  that 
ended  with  a  bankrupt  treasury  and  an  impoverished  peojile. 

The  last  days  of  the  term  of  Gonzales  were  stol'my.  His 
attempt  to  secure  certain  unpopular  financial  legislation  cre¬ 
ated  great  excitement,  and  the  students  of  the  universities, 
who  numbered  six  or  seven  thousand,  made  a  protest  which 
would  have  ended  in  violence  and  assassination  but  for  the 
overpowering  military  guard  that  surrounded  the  palace.  The 


MEXICO. 


27 


students  would 
have  resisted  any 
attempt  of  Gon¬ 
zales  to  prevent 

the  inauguration  san  cosme  aqueduct,  city  of  Mexico. 

of  his  successor, 

and  kept  up  a  demonstration  against  the  existing  Govern¬ 
ment  until  that  event  occurred. 

It  was  nine  o’clock  on  the  morning  that  the  ceremonies 
were  to  occur.  Long  lines  of  bayonets  and  sabres  glittered 
in  the  streets  around  the  theatre,  regiments  of  cavalry  and 
infantry  were  drawn  up  in  the  Alameda  and  Plaza,  squads  of 
police,  on  foot  and  mounted,  were  marching  here  and  there. 
Bands  of  students  yell  “  Viva  /”  and  “ Mira  /”  Some  were  fired 
into,  and  several  students  wounded.  The  shops  were  nearly 
ah  closed  early  in  the  day ;  huge  iron  padlocks  and  bolts  that 
would  resist  a  sledge-hammer  for  half  a  day  hung  on  doors 


28 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


that  but  a  few  days  ago  were  thronged  with  customers,  and 
the  few  that  remained  open  were  merely  ajar,  ready  to  be 
slammed  shut  in  a  minute,  and  the  ponderous  bars  swung  into 
place. 

The  attendance  at  the  theatre  was  not  large,  and  consisted 
almost  entirely  of  officials,  foreign  ambassadors,  and  the  per¬ 
sonal  friends  of  the  President,  who,  like  the  members  of  the 
Congress,  were  nearly  all  in  full  dress,  but  carried  revolvers 
in  their  pockets  for  use  if  the  occasion  demanded.  In  a  gilded 
box  over  the  stage  was  the  wife  of  General  Diaz,  of  girlish 
years  and  striking  beauty,  attended  by  a  party  of  lady  friends 
and  two  military  officers  resplendent  in  gold  lace.  There  was 
no  crush,  no  confusion,  but  a  suppressed  excitement  and  anx¬ 
iety,  made  intense  by  the  recollection  that  such  incidents  in 
the  history  of  Mexico  had  been  usually  attended  by  war.  The 
outgoing  President  was  regarded  as  the  enenry  of  his  succes¬ 
sor,  and  the  Congress  was  about  equall}T  divided  in  its  alle¬ 
giance.  The  former  was  not  present,  and  his  movements  and 
intentions  were  unknown. 

The  members  of  the  Senate  sat  in  a  double  row  of  chairs 
which  had  been  placed  around  the  sides  of  the  parquet  for 
their  accommodation,  and  all  of  them  wore  white  kid  gloves. 
The  members  of  the  Lower  House,  the  Deputies,  sat  in  their 
accustomed  seats,  and  their  chief  officer  presided.  Promptly 
at  nine  o’clock  General  Diaz,  in  full  evening  dress,  with  white 
gloves,  was  escorted  to  the  platform  by  a  committee  of  Sena¬ 
tors,  took  the  oath  of  office  with  his  back  to  the  audience,  and 
passed  rapidly  out  of  the  building.  The  whole  proceeding 
did  not  last  more  than  five  minutes,  and  when  the  clerk  an¬ 
nounced  that  the  oath  of  office  had  been  taken  in  accordance 
with  the  law,  and  declared  Diaz  “  Constitutional  President,” 
the  audience  quietly  left  the  chamber  as  if  nothing  more  than 
the  ordinary  routine  had  taken  place. 

But  the  excitement  was  not  abated.  The  oath  had  been 
taken,  but  the  outgoing  administration  by  its  absence  from 
the  ceremonies  had  intensified  the  anxiety  lest  the  admission 
of  Diaz  to  the  Palace  might  be  denied.  Accompanied  by  a 


MEXICO. 


29 


committee  of  Senators  and  an  escort  of  cavalry,  President 
Diaz  drove  half  a  mile  to  the  Government  building,  and  to  his 
gratification  the  column  of  soldiers  which  was  drawn  up  be¬ 
fore  the  entrance  opened  to  let  him  pass.  The  plaza  which 


the  building  fronts  was  crowded  with  thousands  of  people, 
Avho  announced  the  arrival  of  the  new  President  by  a  deafen¬ 
ing  cheer,  and  the  chimes  of  the  old  cathedral  rang  a  melodi¬ 
ous  welcome. 


30 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


In  the  centre  of  the  old  palace,  which  stands  upon  the 
foundations  of  the  heathen  temple  Cortez  destroyed,  is  an 
enormous  court,  in  which  the  President’s  party  alighted  and 
ascended  the  marble  stairs.  The  sentinels  which  lined  the 
staircase  saluted  them  respectfully,  and  this  omen  relieved 
their  minds.  At  the  entrance  of  the  Executive  chamber, 
where  relics  of  the  luxurious  taste  of  Maximilian  still  remain, 
Diaz  was  received  by  an  aide-de-camp  of  Gonzales,  who  ush¬ 
ered  him  into  the  presence  of  the  retiring  administration. 
Surrounded  by  his  Cabinet,  Gonzales  stood,  and  as  Diaz  en¬ 
tered  stepped  forward  to  welcome  him,  and  according  to  the 
ancient  practice,  handed  him  an  enormous  silver  hey,  which  is 
supposed  to  turn  the  bolts  that  protect  authority.  Short 
formal  addresses  were  made  upon  either  side,  and  after  wish¬ 
ing  the  new  administration  a  peaceful  and  prosperous  term, 
Gonzales  and  his  ministers  retired. 

General  Porfirio  Diaz,  the  foremost  man  in  Mexico  to-day, 
and  one  whose  public  career  will  fill  pages  in  the  histoiy  of 
that  Republic,  is  the  representative  of  mixed  Aztec  and  Span¬ 
ish  ancestry,  like  all  of  the  famous  native  leaders  of  the  last  half 
century.  He  is  tall  and  dark,  bis  muscular  figure  impressing 
one  as  the  very  incarnation  of  health  and  endurance.  He  has 
a  military,  yet  nonchalant  air,  his  brown  eyes  meet  you 
squarely  with  the  glance  of  one  born  to  command,  and  bis 
voice  is  peculiarly  pleasant  as  in  deep  tones  he  rolls  off  the 
musical  dialect  of  his  mother-tongue. 

His  career,  like  that  of  all  Mexican  leaders,  is  full  of  roman¬ 
tic  adventure.  He  was  born  in  the  rich  State  of  Oaxaca, 
which  was  also  the  birthplace  of  Juarez,  Mejia,  Eomero,  Mar- 
iscal,  and  others  famed  in  politics  and  literature.  Don  Por- 
firio’s  parents  designed  him  for  the  law  and  sent  him  to  the 
Literary  Institute,  in  Puebla,  the  City  of  the  Angels,  which 
celebrated  institution  has  graduated  many  of  Mexico’s  most 
eminent  men.  But  Diaz,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four,  enlisted  as 
a  private  in  the  ^National  Guard  against  the  government  of 
Santa  Anna.  Again,  in  the  so-called  war  of  reform — in  1858 
and  1861 — he  won  more  substantial  honors  than  the  straps  of 


MEXICO. 


31 


an  officer,  and  when  his  country  was  convulsed  by  the  French 
invasion  of  1862,  Diaz,  then  a  general,  took  a  prominent  part 
in  the  struggle.  Once  during  those  wars,  when  a  prisoner  at 
Puebla,  he  escaped  by  letting  himself  down  from  the  tower  inn 
which  he  was  confined  by  means  of  a  rope  spliced  out  with 
his  clothing.  Another  of  his  numerous  hair-breadth  escapes 
was  during  the  bloody  struggle  by  which  he  made  himself 
President  for  the  first  time.  Having  captured  Matamoras  by 
daring  strategy,  he  was  seized  on  shipboard  by  the  Lerdists, 
and  saved  himself  only  by  leaping  into  the  sea,  assisted  by  the 
connivance  of  a  French  captain,  whom  he  afterwards  made 
consul  at  Saint  Hazaire. 

In  1871  General  Diaz  was  one  of  the  three  candidates  for 
the  Presidency,  and  being  defeated  by  Juarez,  issued  his  cele¬ 
brated  manifesto  known  as  the  “  Plan  of  Fiona,”  repudiating 
all  existing  powers,  and  proposing  to  retain  military  com¬ 
mand.  Being  thoroughly  whipped  by  the  Indian  President, 
after  more  than  a  year’s  hard  fighting  and  the  loss  of  thou¬ 
sands  of  lives,  the  general  left  Mexico  for  a  time,  along  with 
a  number  of  his  fellow-partisans. 

After  Juarez  died  in  office,  his  successor,  Don  Sebastian 
Lerdo  de  Tejada,  recalled  all  political  exiles  by  issuing  a  gen¬ 
eral  amnesty,  which  act  Diaz  hastened  to  repay  by  rushing 
again  to  arms  and  speedily  deposing  his  rival.  Although  the 
Electoral  College  had  declared  Lerdo  the  legally  elected  ruler 
by  a  vote  of  123  to  49,  Diaz  proceeded  to  issue  a  pronuncia- 
mento  from  Palo  Blanco,  State  of  Tamaulipas,  denouncing  the 
President,  Congress,  and  all  recognized  authorities,  and  at  the 
head  of  the  Constitutional  army  took  possession  of  the  capital 
and  usurped  the  Executive  chair,  driving  the  incumbent  into 
exile,  and  holding  his  position  by  force  of  arms. 

When  the  term  was  over  for  which  Diaz  had  thus  elected 
himself,  he  retired  temporarily  to  fulfil  the  law  he  had  so 
strenuously  advocated,  Article  28  of  the  amended  constitu¬ 
tion.  FText  he  set  about  paving  the  way  to  permanent  success 
by  placating  all  opposing  factions.  First,  he  forever  laid  any 
restless  ghost  of  Lerdist  sentiment  that  might  arise  and  shake 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


29 


its  gory  locks  in  the  future,  by  marrying  in  the  very  midst 
of  the  enemy’s  camp.  His  young  and  beautiful  wife  is  the 
daughter  of  Romero  Rubio,  who  was  President  Lerdo’s  most 
influential  adviser,  and  his  bosom  friend  and  companion  in 
exile.  Senor  Rubio  lias  since  been  President  of  the  Senate, 
and  Minister  of  the  Interior. 

No  man  since  the  Indian  Juarez,  who  was  the  Abraham 
Lincoln  of  Mexican  history,  has  achieved  the  popularity  that 
Diaz  enjoys,  or  has  won  the  confidence  of  the  people  to  so 
great  a  degree.  The  ballad-singers  at  Santa  Anita,  an  Indian 
village  in  the  suburbs  of  the  capital,  on  the  romantic  canal 
that  leads  to  the  far-famed  Floating  Gardens,  where  the  pop¬ 
ulace  swarm  on  Sundays  to  drink  pulque  and  dance  fandan¬ 
goes,  carol  many  a  long-drawn  refrain  to  twanging  guitars  in 
praise  of  Porfirio  D-i-i-iaz,  while  the  dedications  of  their  myr¬ 
iad  pulquerias  are  about  equally  divided  between  Diaz,  Mon¬ 
tezuma,  and  the  Mother  of  God. 

The  old  Capitol,  or  Palace,  as  it  is  called,  which  Cortez  raised 
upon  the  ruins  of  the  Aztec  temple  is  still  occupied  as  the  seat 
of  government,  and  shelters  the  Executive  departments.  Here, 
too,  is  the  National  Museum,  with  its  collection  of  antiquities, 
and  in  its  centre,  near  the  Sacrificial  Stone  of  the  Aztecs,  is  the 
imperial  coach  in  which  the  ill-fated  Emperor  rode.  Public 
business  is  conducted  very  much  as  in  the  United  States ;  the 
officials  are  usually  accomplished  linguists,  and  well  read  in 
political  economy.  The  science  of  government  is  studied  there 
more  than  with  us,  and  public  life  is  a  profession,  like  law  or 
engineering.  There  still  exists,  however,  and  many  genera¬ 
tions  will  come  and  go  before  it  can  be  eradicated,  a  caste 
that  divides  the  people  into  three  classes — the  peon,  the  aris¬ 
tocrat,  and  the  middle  class.  The  prejudice  that  separates 
them  is  usually  overcome  by  military  force.  The  peon,  who 
like  Diaz  becomes  a  political  and  a  social  leader,  must  win  the 
place  by  military  skill,  or  wear  a  sarepa  forever. 

Among  the  upper  classes  of  Mexico  will  be  found  as  high  a 
degree  of  social  and  intellectual  refinement  as  exists  in  Paris, 
as  quick  a  reception  and  as  cordial  a  response  to  all  the  sent!- 


THE  CATHEDRAL,  CITY  OF  MEXICO. 


MEXICO. 


33 


ments  that  elevate  society,  and  a  knowledge  of  the  arts  and 
literature  that  few  people  of  the  busy  cities  of  the  United 
States  have  acquired. 


Their  wealth  is  lavishly  displayed,  their  taste  is  exercised 
to  a  degree  equal  to  that  of  any  people  in  the  world,  and  the 
interior  of  many  of  their  dwellings  furnishes  a  glimpse  of 
happiness  and  cultured  elegance  that,  with  their  less  active 
3 


'XlBRARV” 


r . ~*>OD!E,  N.  Y 


34 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


temperament,  they  enjoy  more  than  their  northern  neighbors. 
Yet  the  people  who  receive  the  latest  Paris  fashions  and  liter¬ 
ature  by  every  steamer,  and  who  would  rather  wear  a  shroud  , 
than  a  garment  out  of  style,  still  cling  to  some  ancient  cus¬ 
toms  as  eagerly  as  they  seize  some  modern  ideas.  Social  laws 
restrict  intercourse  between  the  sexes,  as  in  the  Latin  nations 
of  Europe,  and  Pedro  makes  love  to  Mercedes  through  his 
father  and  hers.  Marriage  is  often  a  commercial  contract  for 
pecuniary  or  social  advantages,  and  a  parent  chooses  his  son- 
in-law  as  he  selects  his  partners  or  the  directors  of  a  bank. 
It  is  an  impropriety  for  men  and  women  to  be  alone  together, 
even  if  they  are  closely  related,  and  no  woman  of  the  higher 
caste  goes  upon  the  streets  without  a  duenna. 

The  funeral  customs  of  Mexico  are  a  source  of  constant 
interest  to  strangers  in  that  land,  as  the  burial  of  the  dead  is 
a  ceremony  of  great  display.  The  poor  rent  handsome  coffins 
which  they  have  not  the  means  to  buy,  and  transfer  the  body 
from  its  temporary  casket  to  a  cheap  box  before  it  is  laid  in 
the  grave.  Invitations  are  issued  by  messenger,  and  adver¬ 
tisements  of  funerals  are  published  in  the  newspapers  or  posted 
at  the  street  corners  like  those  of  a  bull-tight  or  a  play.  An¬ 
nouncements  are  sent  to  friends  in  big,  black-bordered  enve¬ 
lopes,  and  are  usually  decorated  with  a  picture  of  a  tomb. 
The  information  is  conveyed  in  faultless  Spanish,  that  Senor 
Don  Jesus  San  a  Maria  Hidalgo  died  yesterday  at  noon,  and 
that  his  bereaved  Avife,  Avho  mourns  under  the  name  of  “  Donna 
Maria  Jose  Concepcion  de  los  Angelos  Harro  Henriandos  y 
Hidalgo,”  together  Avith  his  family,  desire  you  to  honor  them 
by  participating  in  the  ceremonies  of  burial,  and  in  supplicat¬ 
ing  the  Mother  of  God  and  the  Redeemer  of  the  world  to 
grant  the  soul  of  the  dead  husband  a  speedy  release  from  the 
pains  of  Purgatory,  and  eternal  bliss  in  Paradise.  • 

The  oddities  of  Mexican  life  and  customs  strike  the  tourist 
in  a  most  forcible  manner.  The  first  thing  he  observes  among 
the  common  people  is  that  the  men  wear  extremely  large 
hats,  and  the  Avomen  no  hats  at  all.  The  ordinary  sombrero 
costs  fifteen  dollars,  Avhile  those  bearing  the  handsome  orna- 


MEXICO. 


35 


ments  so  universal¬ 
ly  popular  run  in 
price  all  the  way 
from  twenty-five  to 
two  hundred  and 
fifty  dollars.  The 
Mexican  invests  all 
his  surplus  in  his 
hat.  Men  whose 
wages  are  not  more 
than  twelve  dollars 
a  month  often  wear 


sombreros  which  rep¬ 
resent  a  whole  quar¬ 
ter’s  income.  A  serv¬ 
ant  at  the  house  of  a 
friend  was  paid  off 
one  day  for  the  three 
months  his  employer 
had  been  absent.  He 
got  forty-two  dollars, 
of  which  he  paid  thir¬ 
ty-five  dollars  for  a  hat  and  gave  seven  dollars  to  his  family. 
The  next  thing  that  you  notice  is  that  every  block  on  the 


STYLES  OF  ARCHITECTURE. 


30 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


same  street  lias  a  different  name,  and  when  you  start  out  on 
foot  to  make  a  visit  you  become  bewildered  at  once,  and  have 
to  call  a  carriage.  Take  the  chief  street,  for  example,  which 
begins  at  the  Grand  Plaza,  where  the  Palace  stands,  and  runs 
to  the  statue  of  Charles  IV.  of  Spain.  Each  of  the  seventeen 
blocks  has  a  name  of  its  own,  and  the  names  that  are  used  are 
quite  as  striking  as  this  perplexing  custom.  Here  is  a  list  of 
some  of  the  principal  blocks  or  streets  translated  into  English : 
“  Crown  of  Thorns  Street,”  “  Fifth  of  May  Street,”  “  Holy 
Ghost  Street,”  “  Blood  of  Christ  Street,”  “  Body  of  Christ 
Street,”  “  Mother  of  Sorrows  Street,”  “  Street  of  the  Sacred 
Heart,”  “The  Heart  of  Jesus  Street,”  “Street  of  the  Love  of 
God,”*“  Jesus  Street,”  and  “  John  the  Baptist  Street.”  Nearly 
every  saint  in  the  calendar  has  a  street  named  after  him  or 
her,  and  nine-tenths  of  the  city  has  the  religion  of  the  people 
thus  illustrated. 

Another  thing  that  surprises  you  greatly  is  that  nearly 
every  man  you  meet  makes  you  a  present  of  a  residence.  He 
grasps  your  hand  with  ardent  cordiality  when  he  leaves  you, 
and  says,  “  My  house  is  yours ;  it  stands  numero  tres — Calle,” 
and  so  on,  “  and  is  at  your  service.”  The  next  man  tells  you 
that  your  house  is  such  and  such  a  number,  and  he  shall  be 
angry  if  you  do  not  occupy  it.  As  neither  of  them  has  en¬ 
joyed  the  honor  of  your  acquaintance  for  more  than  five  min¬ 
utes,  and  both  are  only  casually  introduced,  this  excessive 
generosity  is  quite  embarrassing.  An  English  lord  told  me 
he  met  fourteen  men  at  the  Jockey  Club  one  evening,  and 
was  presented  with  thirteen  houses.  The  other  man  lived  in 
Cuba.  But  it  is  only  the  Mexican  way  of  saying,  “  I’m  pleased 
to  meet  you.”  It  often  leads  to  comical  adventures,  however, 
for  the  gentleman  who  tenders  such  profuse  hospitality  sel¬ 
dom  remembers  you  the  next  morning.  People  have  accepted 
these  ardent  invitations  and  been  met  with  a  cold  welcome. 
Another  amusing  and  puzzling  peculiarity  is  that  everybody 
lives  over  a  shop.  Even  the  millionaires  rent  out  the  first 
floor  of  their  residences  for  purposes  of  business,  and  live  in 
the  third  story.  The  handsomest  house  in  all  Mexico  has  a 


MEXICO. 


37 


railway  ticket-office  on  one  side  of  the  entrance  and  a  cigar 
shop  on  the  other.  Everybody  smokes :  women  as  well  as 
men.  They  smoke  in  the  street -cars,  in  the  shops,  at  the 
opera,  everywhere.  I  have  often  seen  a  man  upon  his  knees 
in  a  chapel  muttering  his  prayers  with  a  lighted  cigar  in  his 
hand. 

The  street-cars  run  in  groups.  Instead  of  starting  a  car 
every  ten  minutes  from  the  terminus,  three  are  started  to¬ 
gether  every  half  hour.  One  car  is  never  seen  alone,  nor  two 
together,  but  always  three  in  a  row,  less  than  half  a  block 
apart.  It  requires  two  conductors  to  run  a  car.  One  ap¬ 
proaches  a  passenger  and  sells  him  a  ticket ;  the  second  one 
then  comes  in  and  takes  it  up.  In  some  respects  it  is  an  im¬ 
provement  on  the  bell-punch  system.  There  are  first-class  cars 
and  second-class  cars.  The  former  are  of  Hew  York  man¬ 
ufacture,  and  similar  to  those  used  in  that  city ;  the'  latter 
are  of  domestic  construction,  have  but  few  windows,  and  look 
like  the  cabooses  used  on  railroad  freight  trains.  First-class 
fares  are  sometimes  as  high  as  twenty-five  cents,  but  are  more 
often  a  medio  (six  and  a  quarter  cents),  being  governed  by 
the  distance.  Second-class  fares  are  always  one -half  the 
amount  of  first-class  fares.  Street -car  drivers  carry  horns, 
and  blow  them  when  they  approach  street  crossings.  The 
conductors  usually  carry  revolvers.  Yearly  everybody,  in 
truth,  carries  a  revolver. 

Horseback  riding  is  the  national  amusement,  and  the  streets 
are  full  of  horsemen,  particularly  in  the  cooler  hours  of  the 
morning  and  evening.  The  proper  thing  to  wear  is  a  wide 
sombrero,  very  tight  trousers  of  leather  or  cassimere,  with 
rows  of  silver  buttons  up  and  down  the  outer  seam,  a  hand¬ 
somely  embroidered  velvet  jacket,  a  scarlet  sash,  a  sword,  and 
two  revolvers,  not  to  mention  spurs  of  marvellous  size  and  de¬ 
sign,  and  a  saddle  of  surpassing  magnificence.  A  Mexican 
caballero  often  spends  one  thousand  dollars  for  an  equestrian 
outfit.  His  saddle  costs  from  fifty  dollars  to  five  hundred 
dollars,  his  <sword  fifty  dollars,  his  silver-mounted  bridle  twen¬ 
ty-five  dollars,  his  silver  spurs  as  much  more,  the  solid  silver 


38 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


buttons  on  his  trousers  one  hundred  dollars,  his  hat  fifty  dol¬ 
lars,  and  the  rest  of  his  rig  in  proportion.  The  Mexican 
small  boy,  if  he  has  wealthy  parents,  is  mounted  after  a  simi¬ 
lar  fashion,  even  to  the  revolver  and  sword.  An  equestrian 
costume  for  a  boy  of  ten  years  can  be  purchased  for  about 
fifty  dollars,  not  including  saddle  and  bridle. 


A  MEXICAN  CABALLERO. 


The  Mexican  ladies  do  not  ride  any  more  than  their  sisters 
in  the  United  States.  Social  etiquette  prohibits  this  recrea¬ 
tion,  unless  they  have  brothers  to  go  with  them.  The  senoras 


MEXICO. 


39 


and  senoritas  take  their  exercise  in  closed  carriages.  You 
never  see  a  phaeton  or  wagon  in  Mexico.  When  they  go 
shopping  they  sit  in  their  carriages  and  have  the  goods 
brought  out  to  them.  It  is  a  common  thing  to  see  a  row  of 
carriages  before  a  fashionable  store  with  a  clerk  at  the  door 
of  each  one  exhibiting  silks  or  gloves  or  ribbons.  In  some  of 
the  stores  are  parlors  in  which  a  senora  can  sit  if  she  likes 
and  have  the  goods  brought  to  her.  None  but  foreigners  and 
the  common  people  stand  at  the  counters  and  buy.  Mexican 
merchants  never  classify  their  goods.  They  have  no  system 
in  arranging  them.  Silks  and  cottons  are  indiscriminately 
mixed  on  the  shelves.  There  is  no  place  for  anything,  and 
nothing  is  ever  in  place.  Hence  shopping  requires  the  exer¬ 
cise  of  a  vast  deal  of  patience.  I  went  to  buy  a  pair  of  gloves 
one  day.  The  clerk  pulled  open  a  drawer  in  which  were 
shoes,  corsets,  and  ribbons.  He  found  some  gloves,  but  there 
being  none  in  the  box  to  fit,  he  hunted  around  on  the  shelves 
and  in  the  drawers  until  he  discovered  another  lot.  Nor  are 
goods  ever  delivered  at  the  residences  of  purchasers.  If  your 
package  is  too  bulky  to  carry  in  your  hands  or  in  your  car¬ 
riage  it  is  sent  to  your  house  by  a  licensed  carrier,  similar  to 
the  district  messenger  boy  of  New  York,  to  whom  you  pay 
a  fee.  Each  carrier  has  a  brass  badge  like  a  policeman’s,  bean 
ing  a  number,  and  if  he  does  not  deliver  the  goods  promptly 
and  in  good  order  you  report  him  at  police  headquarters, 
where  he  is  heavily  fined.  On  the  other  hand,  if  he  cannot 
find  your  residence,  or  there  is  a  mistake  in  the  directions, 
he  takes  the  goods  to  police  headquarters,  and  you  can  find 
them  there,  and  discover  the  reasons  why  they  were  not  de¬ 
livered. 

On  pleasant  afternoons — and  except  in  the  rainy  season  all 
afternoons  are  pleasant  here — everybody  who  owns  a  carriage, 
or  is  able  to  hire  one,  drives  on  the  boulevard  which  Maxi¬ 
milian  made  from  the  city  to  the  Castle  of  Chapultepec,  a  dis¬ 
tance  of  two  and  a  half  miles.  As  most  of  the  carriages  are 
closed,  the  scene  is  not  so  interesting  as  it  might  be,  but  you 
can  occasionally  catch  a  glimpse  of  a  beautiful  face  through 


40 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  carriage  windows.  The  horses  are  indifferent.  Some  of 
the  handsomest  equipages  are  drawn  by  mules. 

There  are  more  public  hacks  and  carriages  in  Mexico  than 
in  any  other  city  in  the  world  in  proportion  to  its  population, 
and  few  cities  have  worse  pavements.  Most  of  the  vehicles 
are  coupes,  but  there  are  a  few  victorias.  There  are  no  han¬ 
soms.  The  public  carriages  are  all  under  police  regulation,  and 
the  rates  are  fixed  by  law,  according  to  the  condition  of  the 
vehicle  and  the  horses.  Each  carriage  has  a  small  tin  flag  at- 
tached  to  the  top.  A  green  flag  means  that  you  have  to  pay 
a  dollar  and  a  half  an  hour,  for  the  carriage  is  new,  the  horses 
are  good,  and  the  harness  is  handsomely  trimmed.  A  blue 
flag  means  a  dollar  an  hour,  with  a  little  less  style ;  a  white 
flag,  seventy-five  cents.  The  latter  class  are  about  the  tough- 
est-looking  outfits  that  can  be  found  anywhere. 

Each  of  the  other  sort  of  carriages  has  a  footman  as  well 
as  a  coachman,  without  additional  price,  although  generous 
people  give  him  a  tip  to  the  extent  of  a  real  (twelve  and  a 
half  cents).  The  footman  is  called  a  raozo ,  and  acts  as  a  sort 
of  apprentice  or  private  secretary  to  the  cocker o,  or  driver. 
When  }tou  hire  a  hack  the  raozo  rushes  off  to  the  nearest 
store,  looks  at  the  clock,  and  brings  you  back  a  card  upon 
which  the  hour  is  written.  When  you  finish  your  ride  he 
hands  you  the  card  again,  and  you  pay  from  the  time  3rou 
started.  On  feast-days  charges  are  doubled,  and  as  feast-days 
are  frequent,  when  all  the  stores  are  closed,  the  hackmen 
make  a  good  thing  of  it.  They  drive  in  a  most  reckless 
manner,  and  as  the  pavements  are  rough  the  passenger’s  are 
bounced  about. 

The  Spaniards  drink  cognac  and  sour  wines.  Whiske3r  is 
not  a  safe  beverage  for  the  climate.  American  mixed  drinks 
are  not  popular,  and  the  scarcity  of  ice  makes  juleps  and  that 
sort  of  thing  expensive.  The  stranger  in  Mexico  is  always 
very  thirsty;  the  rapid  evaporation  makes  the  mouth  and 
throat  dry,  and  water  furnishes  only  temporary  relief.  The 
most  refreshing  drink  is  lime-juice  in  Apollinaris  water. 

Pulque  (pronounced  poolkee)  is  the  national  drink,  and  is 


MEXICO. 


41 


the  fermented  milk  of  the  cactus.  Eighty  thousand  gallons 
are  said  to  be  sold  in  Mexico  every  day,  and  double  that 
amount  on  Sundays  and  saints’  days.  It  is  a  sort  of  combina¬ 
tion  of  starch  and  alcohol,  looks  like  well- watered  skim-milk, 
and  tastes  like  yeast.  It  costs  but  a  penny  a  glass,  or  three 
cents  a  quart,  so  that  it  is  within  the  reach  of  the  humblest 


NOCHE  TEISTE  THEE. 


citizen,  and  he  drinks  vast  quantities  of  it.  Five  cents’  worth 
will  make  a  peon  (as  all  the  natives  are  called)  as  happy  as  a 
lord,  and  ten  cents’  worth  will  send  him  reeling  into  the  arms 
of  a  policeman,  who  secures  him  an  engagement  to  work  for 
the  Government  for  ten  days  without  compensation.  But  it 
leaves  no  headache  in  the  morning,  and  is  said  to  be  very 
healthful.  In  the  moist  climates  one  might  drink  large  quan- 


42 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


cities  without  injury,  but  all  the  usual  intoxicants  are  harmful 
in  this  altitude. 

The  police  system  of  Mexico  is  admirable.  At  every  street 
corner  there  is  a  patrolman  night  and  day — not  a  patrolman 
either,  for  he  never  moves.  He  stands  like  a  statue  during 
the  day,  occasionally  leaning  against  a  lamp-post,  and  answers 
inquiries  with  the  greatest  urbanity.  Whenever  there  is  a 
row  two  or  three  policemen  are  instantly  present,  and  if  their 
clubs  cannot  suppress  it  they  use  revolvers.  At  night  the 
policeman  brings  a  lantern  and  a  blanket.  He  sets  the  lantern 
in  the  middle  of  the  street,  and  all  carriages  are  compelled  to 
keep  to  the  right  of  the  row  of  lanterns,  which  can  be  seen 
glimmering  from  one  end  of  the  street  to  the  other.  As  lomr 
as  people  are  passing  he  stands  at  the  corner,  but  when  things 
quiet  down  he  leaves  his  lantern  in  the  road,  retires  to  a 
neighboring  door-way,  wraps  his  blanket  around  him,  and  lies 
down  to  pleasant  dreams.  As  all  the  windows  in  the  city  of 
Mexico  have  heavy  prison-like  gratings  before  them,  and  all 
the  doors  are  great  oaken  affairs  that  could  not  be  knocked 
in  without  a  catapult;  as  there  are  never  any  fires,  and 
everybody  goes  to  bed  early,  the  policeman’s  lot  is  usually  a 
happy  one.  He  is  munerous  because  of  revolutions,  and  be¬ 
cause  the  Government  always  wants  to  know  what  is  going: 
on.  There  is  a  popular  belief  in  Mexico  that  no  stranger  ever 
comes  to  town  without  having  his  past  history  and  future 
plans  recorded  at  police  headquarters.  One  never  reads  of 
robberies  or  pocket-picking,  or  assault  and  battery  cases,  in 
the  city  of  Mexico.  Common  thieves  have  no  chance  there. 
The  only  disturbances  are  political  revolutions,  and  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  alone  is  robbed. 

All  the  ice  that  is  used  hi  Mexico  comes  from  the  top  of 
Popocatepetl.  It  is  brought  down  the  mountain  on  the  backs 
of  the  natives,  and  then  sixty  miles  on  the  cars  to  the  city, 
where  it  is  sold  at  wholesale  for  ten  cents  a  pound.  At  the 
bar-rooms  iced  drinks  are  very  expensive,  and  ice  is  seldom 
seen  anywhere  else.  The  people  all  use  a  jug  of  porous 
earthenware  made  by  the  Indians  in  which  water  is  kept  cool 


MEXICO. 


43 


by  rapid  evaporation.  The  stranger  should  always  squeeze  a 
little  lime-juice  into  his  glass  before  he  drinks  water,  to  get 
a  pleasant  flavor,  and  escape  evil  effects  from  alkaline  prop¬ 
erties. 

From  the  top  of  the  cathedral  spire  you  can  see  the  entire 
city,  and  the  most  striking  feature  of  the  view  is  the  absence 
of  chimneys.  There  is  not  a  chimney  in  all  Mexico ;  not  a 
stove,  nor  a  grate,  nor  a  furnace.  All  the  cooking  is  done  with 
charcoal  in  Dutch  ovens,  and,  while  the  gas  is  sometimes  of¬ 
fensive,  one  soon  becomes  used  to  it.  Coal  costs  sixteen  dol¬ 
lars  a  ton,  and  wood  sixteen  dollars  a  cord.  All  the  coal  was 
formerly  imported  from  England,  but  now  comes  from  Coha- 
huila,  and  the  wood  is  all  brought  from  the  mountains. 

As  formerly,  bull-fighting  is  at  present  the  most  popular 
amusement  in  Mexico,  and  a  matador  is  more  distinguished 
in  the  eyes  of  the  common  people  than  a  prima  donna  or  a 
president.  The  Mexican  Government  has  of  late  years  become 
humanized  to  the  extent  of  prohibiting  these  brutal  spectacles 
within  the  city  limits,  and  they  now  take  place  at  what  is 
called  the  “  Plaza  de  Toros,”  or  Bull  Park,  on  the  plains  five 
or  six  miles  from  the  city.  Here  the  people  gather  on  every 
Sunday  and  saint -day  to  witness  the  butchery  of  three  or 
four  bulls  and  twice  as  many  horses,  under  the  official  pat¬ 
ronage  of  the  Governor  of  the  State,  who  always  is  present 
with  his  family  and  official  staff,  and  from  a  decorated  plat¬ 
form  directs  the  entertainment,  giving  his  orders  through  a 
trumpeter. 

Back  of  the  Castle  of  Chapultepec  is  the  battle-field  of 
Molino  del  Bey  (The  Mill  of  the  King),  where  General  Scott 
met  stubborn  resistance  when  he  attempted  to  enter  Mexico, 
but  drove  the  Mexicans  up  the  hill.  The  old  earthworks 
erected  by  the  latter  still  stand  as  they  were  at  the  time  of 
the  battle,  and  are  usually  visited  by  tourists.  On  the  plain 
beyond  the  battle-field  stands  an  amphitheatre  enclosed  within 
a  massive  wall  of  adobe — the  mud  bricks  which  are  used  for 
building  material  in  all  the  rainless  region  of  this  continent. 
The  amphitheatre  is  arranged  in  the  usual  form,  except  that 


44 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  shady  side  is  divided  up  into  boxes  to  he  occupied  by  the 
grandees,  while  the  sunny  side  has  plain  board  benches  for 
the  barefooted  Castilians  whose  mild  eyes  and  pathetic  defer¬ 
ence  give  no  key  to  the  cruelty  of  which  their  race  has  been 
guilty.  The  centre  of  the  amphitheatre  is  enclosed  by  a 
board  wall,  perhaps  eight  feet  in  height,  surmounted  at  a 
point  two  feet  higher  by  a  heavy  cable  strung  through  stal¬ 
wart  iron  rods.  The  top  of  this  fence  appeared  to  be  the 
favorite  eyrie  from  which  to  survey  the  field,  and  upon  it  for 
the  entire  length  sat  a  row  of  urchins,  with  here  and  there  a 
bearded  man,  all  poised  upon  the  edge,  with  their  legs  hang¬ 
ing  over  into  the  bull-ring,  and  their  anus  clinging  to  the 
rope. 

The  Governor,  a  tall,  swarthy  man,  with  a  wide  sombrero, 
mustache  and  goatee,  the  very  picture  of  the  “  haughty  Don,” 
sat  in  a  decorated  box,  with  the  flag  of  his  country  profusely 
draped  around  him.  lie  had  two  aides-de-camp,  his  three 
children,  and  an  orderly,  who  with  a  trumpet  sounded  a  blast 
now  and  then  to  convey  his  excellency’s  desires.  AYe  hap¬ 
pened  luckily  to  have  the  adjoining  box,  from  which  we  could 
watch  hun  closely  and  hear  his  comments  upon  the  perform¬ 
ances. 

The  audience  was  very  large,  and  composed  of  all  classes, 
from  the  proud  Castilian  who  came  behind  his  four-in-hand, 
•with  a  retinue  of  outriders,  to  the  poor  peon  who  had  been 
saving  his  scanty  earnings  for  a  week,  and  walked  five  miles 
to  witness  the  ghastly  spectacle.  There  were  perhaps  ten 
thousand  people,  and  one-fifth  of  them  were  women  in  silks 
and  satins,  in  jewels  and  rare  laces,  who  hid  their  eyes  be¬ 
hind  their  fans  when  the  spectacle  was  too  repulsive,  but 
encouraged  the  matadors  with  applause  at  the  end  of  each 
act. 

A  band  of  music  played  lively  airs,  and  played  them  well, 
to  entertain  the  people  until  the  Governor  came,  whose  pres¬ 
ence  being  recognized,  the  people  gave  a  cordial  cheer  by  way 
of  welcome.  Then  the  herald  in  the  Governor’s  box  blew  a 
signal  which  sounded  like  the  “water  call'1  of  the  United 


MEXICO. 


45 


States  Cavalry,  the  doors  of  the  pit  were  opened,  and  in 
marched  a  dozen  or  so  of  matadors,  in  the  same  sort  of  jack¬ 
ets  and  breeches  which 
they  wear  in  the  pictures 
of  Spanish  life  so  famil¬ 
iar  to  all.  Each  wore  a 
plumed  hat,  a  scarlet  sash, 
a  poniard,  and  the  gold 
lace  upon  the  black  vel¬ 
vet  showed  their  lithe 
and  supple  forms  to  ad¬ 
vantage.  They  looked  as 
Don  Juan  looks  in  the  opera,  while  the  leader,  Bernardo  Ca- 
vino,  “  del  decano  de  los  toreros,”  was  a  veritable  Figaro,  in 
appearance  at  least.  Each  carried  a  scarlet  cloak  upon  his 
arm,  and  in  the  other  hand  a  pikestaff.  Behind  them  came 

a  troop  of  eight  horse¬ 
men  upon  gayly  capar¬ 
isoned  steeds,  with  the 
usual  amount  of  silver 
and  leather  trappings  in 
which  the  Mexicans  de¬ 
light.  The  procession 
tailed  up  with  a  team 
of  four  mules  hitched 
abreast,  dragging  a  whiffletree  and  a  long  rope.  These,  we 
are  told,  were  for  the  purpose  of  dragging  out  the  dead.  The 
cavalcade  made  a  circuit  of  the  amphitheatre,  like  the  grand 
entree  at  a  circus,  and  upon  reaching  the  Governor’s  box 
stopped,  saluted  him,  and  received  a  short  address  in  Span¬ 
ish,  which  probably  was  simply  one  of  approval  and  congrat¬ 
ulation  at'  their  fine  appearance.  There  was  a  rack  in  front 
of  the  Governor’s  box  upon  which  hung  several  rows  of  darts, 
gayly  decorated  with  paper  rosettes  and  paper  fringes  of  gold 
and  other  brilliant  tints.  Upon  these  racks  the  matadors  hung 
their  plumed  hats,  and  stood  a  while  to  give  the  ladies  and 
gentlemen  of  the  audience  an  opportunity  to  see  and  admire. 


TEASING  THE  BULL. 


THE  PICADORS. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


46 


The  gay  horsemen  then  rode  out,  and  were  followed  by  the 
mules,  but  the  horsemen  soon  returned  upon  an  entirely  dif¬ 
ferent  style  of  animals — poor,  broken-down,  lean,  lame,  and 
mangy  hacks,  which  looked  as  if  they  had  been  turned  out  of 

some  strefet-car  stable  as 
bait  for  vultures.  They 
were  covered  with  a  sort 
of  leathern  armor,  and 
this  concealed  their  flesh¬ 
less  ribs ;  but  nothing 
could  disguise  the  sham¬ 
bling  and  uncertain  gait 
with  which  they  painful¬ 
ly  ambled  across  the  arena  under  the  savage  spurring  of  their 
riders.  They  managed  to  get  across,  and  that  was  all.  The 
first  set  of  horses  were  intended  for  show,  and  the  second  for 
slaughter.  Public  opinion  appears  to  demand  that  something 
besides  a  bull  be  sacrificed,  and  the  matadors  not  being  ami¬ 
able  enough  to  afford  this  gratification,  a  pair  of  animated 
clothes-racks  are  turned  in  to  be  gored.  The  poor  beasts  are 
blindfolded,  which  is  about  the  only  humane  feature  of  the 
show. 

The  Governor's  herald  gave  another  blast,  at  which  the  en¬ 
tire  audience,  who  were  on  the  qui  vive,  arose  and  shouted. 
A  door  across  the  pit  opened,  and  a  large,  clumsy,  long-horned 
bull  poked  his  head  out  into  the  arena.  The  crowd  yelled, 
and  matadors  posed  at  different  parts  of  the  ring — ten  of 
them — and  the  two  horsemen  pretended  to  get  ready  for  the 
fray.  The  bull  looked  up,  the  only  frightened  being  in  the 
entire  multitude.  The  posters  described  him  as  “a  valiant 
and  arrogant  animal.”  He  was  a  fine  piece  of  beef,  but  he 
didn't  want  to  fight.  Somebody  behind  spurred  him,  and  he 
ran  into  the  ring.  The  doors  were  closed  behind  him,  and 
there  was  no  way  of  escape.  He  plunged  one  way,  but  was 
met  by  three  matadors,  who  flapped  them  cloaks  in  his  eyes ; 
he  turned  in  the  other  direction,  but  was  met  by  three  more ; 
then  he  made  a  bolt  between  them,  and  darting  towards  the 


THE  ENCOKE. 


MEXICO. 


47 


other  side  of  the  ring,  gave  a  great  leap,  as  if  he  would  go  over 
the  eight-foot  wall.  Of  course  he  failed,  but  he  struck  the 
planks  with  tremendous  force,  tumbling  forty  or  fifty  fellows 
who  were  perched  on  the  top  into  a  heap  on  the  other  side. 
It  was  the  only  amusing  feature  of  the  whole  show.  There 
was  a  grand  crash,  a  loud  howl,  forty  or  fifty  pairs  of  legs 
were  in  the  air,  and  the  audience  shouted  with  laughter. 
The  bull  turned  around  frightened  at  the  noise,  ran  to  the 
other  side  of  the  ring,  and  sought  in  vain  for  a  place  to  get 
out.  Then  one  of  the  horsemen  rode  up  in  front  of  the  ani¬ 
mal  and  jammed  a  spear  into  his  face.  The  bull  plunged  at 
his  assailant,  bellowing  with  pain,  lifted  the  poor  horse  upon 
his  horns,  raised  him  from  the  ground,  and  threw  him  with 
great  force  against  the  side  of  the  arena. 

The  rider,  expecting  the  attack,  was  prepared  for  it,  and 
leaped  with  great  agility  from  the  saddle  just  as  the  two  ani¬ 
mals  came  in  contact.  There  was  very  little  left  of  the  horse. 
There  was  not  much  of  him  when  he  was  dragged  into  the 
ring,  but  the  long  horns  of  the  bull  penetrated  his  bowels 
and  tore  them  out.  The  bull  jams  the  horse  against  the 
planks,  two,  three,  four  times,  and  then  withdraws.  The  horse 
lies  a  bleeding,  disembowelled  mass,  and  the  crowd  cheers  the 
dreadful  spectacle. 

The  bull  having  given  up  all  idea  of  escape,  plunges  at 
everything  he  sees,  and  the  second  horse  is  ridden  up  before 
him.  ISTo  attempt  is  made  to  get  the  animal  out  of  the  way. 
He  was  brought  there  to  be  slaughtered,  and  took  his  turn. 
Both  horses  having  been  disposed  of,  and  the  bull  being  com¬ 
pletely  exhausted,  the  bugle  gives  the  signal,  the  matadors 
enter  the  arena,  and  tease  him  with  their  scarlet  cloaks.  At 
frequent  intervals  around  the  ring  are  placed  heavy  planks,  be¬ 
hind  which  the  matadors  run  for  protection  when  they  were 
pursued.  The  bull  had  no  chance  at  all ;  he  was  there  simply 
to  be  teased  and  killed  by  slow  degrees.  One  matador  more 
agile  than  the  rest  baits  the  animal  with  his  lance,  and  when 
the  bull  turns  upon  him,  vaults  over  the  down-turned  horns 
by  resting  his  lance  upon  the  ground.  Then  they  bring  out 


48 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  ornamented  darts, 
and  thrust  them  into  the 
bull's  hide.  The  animal 
jumps  and  plunges  with 
pain,  and  tries  to  shake 
them  off,  but  the  barbs 
cling-  to  the  hide,  and  the 
more  he  struggles  the  far¬ 
ther  they  penetrate  the 
flesh.  Iiis  shoidders  are 
covered  with  them,  and 
the  crimson  blood  trickles 
down  his  sides.  He  stands 
panting  with  distress,  his 
tongue  hanging  out,  and 
is  thoroughly  exhausted. 

The  Governor’s  trum¬ 
pet  sounds  the  bull’s 
death-warrant.  It  means 
that  the  cruel  sport  has 
lasted  long  enough,  and  the  chief  matador  comes  forward 
with  a  red  blanket  and  a  sword.  He  approaches  the  bull,  and 
flaps  the  blanket  in  his  eyes  ;  the  animal  plunges  at  him,  and 
with  great  dexterity  the  matador  whirls  and  thrusts  the  sword 
into  the  animal’s  heart.  The  bull  plunges  with  pain,  and 
throws  the  sword  out  of  his  body  into  the  air.  He  staggers 
and  falls  upon  the  ground,  the  chief  matador  runs  up,  pierces 
his  brain  with  a  poniard,  and  the  mules  are  brought  in  to 
drag  the  dead  animals  out.  The  band  plays,  the  crowd  cheers, 
and  the  first  act  is  over.  The  matadors  bow  to  the  Governor, 
bow  to  the  crowd,  and  rest,  while  a  clown  dances  in  the  ring 
to  amuse  the  people  in  the  interim.  Pretty  soon  the  trumpet 
blows  again,  two  more  old  crow-baits  are  ridden  in,  and  an¬ 
other  bull  is  brought  from  the  corral.  The  same  scenes  recur ; 
the  horses  are  always  killed,  but  the  men  are  seldom  injured. 
Four  bulls  are  usually  disposed  of  each  Sunday  afternoon  be¬ 
fore  the  appetite  for  blood  is  satiated. 


MEXICAN  BEGGAli. 


MEXICO. 


49 


This  cruel  sport  in  Mexico  is  in  its  decadence.  It  grew  out 
of  the  lack  of  other  entertainment.  Until  two  years  ago  there 
was  no  liorse-racing  in  Mexico,  and  this  class  of  sport  is  un¬ 
known  outside  of  the  capital.  The  young  men  are  not  allowed 
to  visit  the  girls,  are  not  permitted  to  walk  with  them  in  the 
parks,  and  have,  in  short,  no  amusements  but  billiards,  cock- 
fighting,  and  bull-baiting.  The  eXodus  of  foreigners  into  the 
Republic  will  break  many  of  the  barriers  down.  While  the 
“  Gringos,”  as  foreigners  are  called,  generally  conform  to  the 
customs  of  the  country,  they  refuse  to  accept  all  of  them,  and 
the  Mexican  people  are  gradually  tending  towards  a  more 
modern  civilization. 

The  ancient  volcano,  Popocatepetl,  has  got  into  the  courts. 
Mot  that  it  has  been  bodily  transported  into  the  halls  of  liti¬ 
gation,  but  it  is  the  subject  of  a  novel  suit  at  law.  For  many 
years  General  Ochoa  has  been  the  owner  of  the  volcano,  the 
highest  point  of  land  in  North  America,  together  with  all  its 
appurtenances.  The  crater  contains  a  fine  quality  of  sulphur, 
which  the  general  has  been  extracting,  giving  employment  to 
Indians  who  cared  to  stay  down  in  the  vaporous  old  crater. 
The  property  was  at  one  time  fairly  profitable ;  the  volcano 
was,  some  time  ago,  mortgaged  to  Mr.  Carlos  Recamier,  who 
brings  suit  of  foreclosure.  The  papers  have  been  joking  about 
the  matter,  some  asking  what  Mr.  Recamier  intends  to  do 
with  his  volcano  when  he  gets  legal  possession.  He  has  been 
solemnly  warned  that  the  law  forbids  the  carrying  out  of  the 
country  ancient  monuments  and  objects  of  historical  interest. 

Good-Friday  is  observed  as  a  sort  of  May  festival.  The 
Pasco  de  las  Flores  (Flower  Promenade)  is  held  along  the 
Viga,  the  picturesque  canal  which  stretches  away  between 
willows  and  poplars  to  the  far-famed  Floating  Gardens  of  the 
ancient  Aztecs.  The  scene  along  the  historic  causeway  is 
astonishing  to  foreigners,  and  as  charmingly  peculiar  as  it  is 
typical  of  a  poetic  and  pleasure  -  loving  people.  For  miles 
along  the  tree-lined  avenue  a  constant  procession  of  vehicles, 
horsemen,  and  pedestrians  pack  the  space  between  green 
booths  on  either  side,  while  the  canal  is  crowded  with  canoes 
4 


50 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  Yenetian-like  gondolas.  Everything  imaginable  on  wheels 
is  seen — the  stately  closed  carriage  of  the  Mexican  million¬ 
aire,  open  barouches,  coupes,  victorias,  dog-carts,  wagonettes, 
even  velocipedes  and  tricycles,  while  thousands  of  horsemen 
gallop  gayly  between. 

The  festivities  are  kept  up,  though  in  diminishing  scale,  un¬ 
til  late  Sunday  night.  During  all  these  days  the  shrill,  dis¬ 
cordant  rattle  of  ten  thousand  matracas  rises  above  the  babel 
of  human  voices.  These  little  instruments  of  torture  are  made 
of  tin,  iron,  ivory,  wood,  even  of  gold  and  silver,  and  in  all 
imaginable  shapes.  Some  are  in  the  form  of  humming-birds, 
birds-of -paradise,  chickens,  parrots ;  others  are  like  gridirons, 
frying-pans,  musical  instruments,  fruits,  flowers,  or  reptiles. 
Everybody  must  have  one,  from  the  dignified  grandparent 
to  the  baby  in  arms,  and  by  twirling  them  rapidly  a  most  un¬ 
earthly,  rasping,  grinding  sound  is  produced  by  wooden  springs 
inside.  The  noise  is  intended  to  typify  and  ridicule  the  cries 
of  the  Jews,  “Crucify  him!  crucify  him!”  as  they  followed 
Christ  to  His  death. 

On  Easter-Sunday  the  strangest  of  all  Mexican  ceremonies 
takes  place  in  the  burning  of  the  traitor.  During  all  Holy- 
week  men  are  continually  perambulating  the  streets,  holding 
high  above  the  heads  of  the  multitude  long  poles  encircled  by 
hoops,  upon  which  are  suspended  the  most  grotesque  figures, 
in  every  conceivable  color,  shape,  and  degree  of  deformity, 
and  all  with  horns  and  crooked  backs  and  twisted  limbs. 
These  are  filled  with  fire-crackers,  the  mustache  forming  the 
fuse,  and  millions  of  them  are  annually  exploded.  Many  are 
life-size,  some  having  faces  to  represent  politicians  who  are 
unpopular  at  the  time.  Some  are  hung  by  the  neck  to  wires 
stretched  across  the  streets,  or  to  the  balconies  of  houses. 
Everv  horse-car  and  railroad  engine  and  donkey-cart  is  decked 
with  one,  and  even  every  mule-driver  has  one  or  more  tied  on 
h.s  breast.  At  ten  o’clock  on  Easter-Sunday,  when  the  cathe¬ 
dral  bells  peal  forth  in  commemoration  of  Christ’s  resurrection, 
they  are  all  touched  off  at  once,  and  the  air  is  filled  with  flying 
traitors  everywhere  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  Mexico. 


ON  MARKET-DAY, 


MEXICO. 


53 


An  American  who  is  married  in  Mexico  finds  that  he  must 
be  three  times  married :  twice  in  Spanish  and  once  more  in 
Spanish  or  English,  as  he  prefers,  besides  having  a  public  no¬ 
tice  of  his  intention  of  marriage  placed  on  a  bulletin-board  for 
twenty  days  before  the  ceremony.  This  is  the  law.  The 
public  notice  can  be  avoided  by  the  payment  of  a  sum  of 
money,  but  a  residence  of  one  month  is  necessary.  The  three 


SUNDAY  AT  SANTA  ANITA. 

ceremonies  are  the  contract  of  marriage,  the  civil  marriage — 
the  only  marriage  recognized  by  law  since  1858  —  and  the 
usual,  but  not  obligatory,  Church  service.  The  first  two  must 
take  place  before  a  judge,  and  in  the  presence  of  at  least  four 
witnesses  and  the  American  consul.  The  contract  of  mar¬ 
riage  is  a  statement  of  names,  ages,  linkage,  business,  and  resi¬ 
dence  of  contracting  parties.  The  civil  marriage  is  the  legal 


54 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


form  of  marriage.  These  ceremonies  are  necessarily  in  Span¬ 
ish.  Most  weddings  are  confirmed  by  a  church-service. 

At  a  Mexican  church  wedding  it  is  the  custom  for  the 
groom  to  pass  coins  through  the  hand  of  the  bride,  as  typical 

of  the  fact  that  she  is  to 
keep  the  money  of  the 
household.  A  very  pret¬ 
ty  feature,  as  the  couple 
kneel  at  the  altar  with 
lighted  candles  in  their 
hands  —  an  emblem  of 
the  light  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  faith — is  the  placing 
of  a  silken  scarf  around 
the  shoulders  of  the  bri¬ 
dal  couple,  and  then  the 
binding  them  together 
with  a  yoke  of  silver 
cord  placed  around  the 
necks  of  both.  That 
“  thy  people  shall  be  my 
people”  is  an  accepted 
fact,  for  it  is  a  common 
thing  for  members  of 
the  bride’s  family  to  take  up  their  permanent  residence  with 
the  husband,  and  make  it  their  home. 

One  of  the  most  singular,  and,  to  the  foreigner,  most  in¬ 
teresting  of  the  institutions  of  Mexico  is  the  Monte  de  Pie- 
dad,  The  phrase  means  “The  Mountain  of  Mercy.”  It  is 
the  name  given  to  what  is  in  reality  a  great  national  pawn¬ 
shop,  which  has  branches  in  all  the  cities  of  the  country,  is 
exclusively  under  Government  control,  and  is  not  managed, 
as  in  the  United  States,  by  guileless  Hebrew  children.  The 
central  office  of  the  Monte  de  Piedad  occupies  the  building 
known  as  the  Palace  of  Cortez,  which  stands  on  the  site  of  the 
ancient  Palace  of  Montezuma,  on  the  Plaza  Mayor.  It  was 
founded  in  1775  by  Conde  de  Pegla,  the  owner  of  very  rich 


A  MEXICAN  BELLE. 


MEXICO. 


55 


mines,  who  endowed  it  in  the  sum  of  three  hundred  thousand 
dollars.  His  charitable  purpose  was  to  enable  the  poor  of 
the  city  of  Mexico  to  obtain  loans  on  pledges  of  all  kinds  of 
articles,  and  for  very  low  rates  of  interest.  He  thus  relieved 
the  poorer  classes  from  usurious  rates  of  interest  which  had 
been  previously  charged  them  by  rapacious  private  pawn¬ 
brokers.  At  first  no  interest  was  charged,  the  borrower  only 


CACTUS,  AND  WOMAN  KNEADING  TORTILLAS. 

being  asked,  when  he  redeemed  his  pledge,  to  give  something 
for  the  carrying  on  of  the  charitable  Avork  Avhich  the  institu¬ 
tion  had  in  hand.  But  as  this  benevolence  Avas  greatly  abused, 
it  was  found  necessary  to  charge  a  rate  of  interest  Avhich  was 
very  low,  and  yet  sufficient  to  yield  a  revenue  equal  to  neces¬ 
sary  expenses.  The  affairs  of  this  institution  have  been  wise¬ 
ly  managed,  and  it  has  been  kept  true  to  the  purpose  of  its 


56 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


benevolent  founder.  When  pledges  come  to  be  sold,  if  they 
bring  a  price  greater  than  the  original  valuation,  the  differ¬ 
ence  is  given  back  to  the  original  owners.  The  Monte  de 
Piedad  has  survived  all  revolutions,  and  its  ministry  of  relief 
to  the  sufferers  by  these  revolutions  and  other  misfortunes  has 
been  incalculably  great  and  blessed.  Its  average  general  loans 
on  pledges  amount  to  nearly  a  million  dollars,  and  the  bor¬ 
rowers  whom  it  yearly  accommodates  number  from  forty  to 
fifty  thousand.  From  the  time  when  it  was  founded,  in  1775, 
down  to  1886 — a  little  more  than  the  first  century  of  its  ex¬ 
istence — it  made  loans  to  2,232,611  persons,  amounting  in  the 
aggregate  to  nearly  $32,000,000,  and  during  the  same  period 
it  gave  away  nearly  $150,000  in  charity. 

There  is  nothing  in  which  the  Mexican  character  appears 
to  better  advantage  than  in  the  provisions  made  for  the  sick 
and  unfortunate.  There  are  in  the  city  of  Mexico  alone  ten 
or  a  dozen  hospitals,  some  of  which  are  large,  well  endowed 
and  equipped,  and  managed  in  a  way  to  compare  favorably 
with  the  best  appointed  hospitals  in  any  country.  This  for 
a  city  of  three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants  is  a  more  liberal 
provision  than  many  larger  cities  in  our  own  country  have. 
A  lying-in  hospital  was  founded  by  the  Empress  Carlotta, 
who,  after  her  return  to  Europe,  sent  the  sum  of  six  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  for  its  support.  Besides  the  hospitals  there  is  a 
foundling  asylum  capable  of  accommodating  two  hundred  in¬ 
mates  ;  an  asylum  for  the  poor,  which  is  a  very  large  and  im¬ 
portant  charity;  a  coi'rectional  school;  an  industrial  school 
for  orphans,  having  thirteen  hundred  scholars ;  an  industrial 
school  for  women  ;  another  for  men ;  schools  for  deaf-mutes 
and  for  the  blind ;  and  an  asylum  for  beggars. 

The  Church  of  England  has  been  established  in  Mexico  for 
twelve  or  fifteen  years,  having  been  induced  to  hold  services 
there  by  the  large  number  of  English  residents  in  the  city ; 
but  no  missionary  work  has  been  done  by  that  denomination. 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Foreign  Missions  several  years  ago 
commenced  to  labor  in  the  Republic  under  the  patronage  of 
Diaz,  who  was  then  President,  and  who  gave  them  substantial 


MEXICO. 


57 


encouragement.  Among  other  things,  he  presented  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Board  with  an  old  Catholic  church,  where  the  school  is 
now  held  daily,  and  a  printing-office,  for  the  purpose  of  the 
publication  of  a  weekly  newspaper  and  religious  literature,  is 
carried  on.  There  are  now  at  work  in  Mexico  six  Protestant 
clergymen  and  two  lady  missionaries  from  the  United  States, 


FIRST  PROTESTANT  CHURCH  IN  MEXICO. 


twenty-four  regularly  ordained  Mexican  ministers,  six  native 
licentiates,  and  three  native  helpers.  Seventy-five  congrega¬ 
tions  have  been  organized,  and  meet  for  worship  every  Sunday, 
and  the  number  of  native  members  is  about  three  thousand. 
There  is  also  a  Theological  Seminary,  with  two  professors 
from  the  United  States  and  one  native  instructor,  having  a 
total  attendance  of  twenty-seven  young  men  preparing  for 


58 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  ministry.  Fourteen  of  these  are  studying  theology,  and 
thirteen  are  in  the  preparatory  department.  There  is  also  a 
school  for  girls,  with  two  American  and  one  native  lady  teach¬ 
er,  which  has  a  large  attendance.  A  missionary  paper  called 
El  Faro  (The  Light-house)  is  conducted  at  the  Theological 

Seminary.  The  work 
is  rapidly  increasing, 
seven  churches  having 
been  organized  in  1885 
and  as  many  more  in 
1886. 

The  missionaries  are 
very  often  interfered 
with  by  the  country 
people,  instigated  by 
the  priests,  and  sev¬ 
eral  of  the  native 
preachers  have  been 
shot  or  injured.  These 
attacks  have  usually 
been  attributed  to 
highwaymen,  but  af¬ 
ter  investigation  have 
proven  to  be  the  work 
of  assassins  employed 
by  the  priests.  One 
white  missionary  was 
murdered  some  two 
years  ago  while  passing  along  the  road  at  night,  but  his  assas¬ 
sins  were  brought  to  speedy  justice,  and  wholesome  examples 
made  of  them. 

In  July,  1885,  the  Romanists  of  a  small  town  in  the  interior 
entered  a  Protestant  church,  carried  off  all  of  the  valuables, 
smashed  the  organ  into  fragments,  emptied  kerosene  oil  upon 
the  benches,  and  set  the  place  on  fire.  The  furniture  of  the 
interior  was  destroyed,  but  the  walls  of  the  building,  being  of 
adobe,  and  the  roof  of  tiles,  the  house  was  not  destroyed.  For 


TFTF,  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  PULPIT  IN  AMERICA — 
TLAXCALA. 


MEXICO. 


59 


some  weeks  afterwards  several  shots  were  fired  at  people  who 
■were  on  their  way  to  evening  service,  and  a  missionary  was 
attacked  in  the  dark  by  armed  assassins  who  would  have 
been  murdered  but  for  the  courageous  use  of  his  revolver. 
Subsequently  all  the  other  churches  in  the  neighborhood  were 
similarly  treated,  and  when  appeals  were  made  to  the  local 
authorities  for  protection,  and  for  the  punishment  of  those 
who  had  committed  the  outrages,  it  was  decided  that  it  was 
the  work  of  highwaymen,  and  a  reward  was  offered  for  the 
arrest  of  the  perpetrators.  This  opinion  was  thought  to  be  a 
subterfuge,  and  it  is  believed  that  the  authorities  were  in  sym¬ 
pathy  with  the  acts. 

The  matter  was  carried  to  President  Diaz,  who  ordered  an 
investigation,  and  promised  an  effectual  protection  to  the  mis¬ 
sionaries  wherever  there  was  need  of  it.  Several  days  after 
he  issued  a  proclamation  which  was  addressed  to  the  com¬ 
mandants  of  the  several  departments  of  the  Republic,  and 
ordered  that  it  should  be  read  before  the  troops  on  parade, 
and  kept  posted  in  conspicuous  places  for  the  information  of 
the  public.  In  this  proclamation, 
among  other  things,  President  Diaz 
said :  “  These  acts  of  intolerance, 
apart  from  their  injustice,  are  the 
data  by  which  people  of  other  lands 
judge  of  the  nature  and  degree  of 
our  civilization,  and  for  this  reason 
especially  I  command  that  you  give 
especial  attention  to  prevent  such 
outrages,  and  to  secure  to  all  believ¬ 
ers  in  any  religion  the  liberty  which 
the  constitution  and  laws  concede  to 
them.  Catholics  shall  be  protected 
in  the  same  way  as  Protestants,  and 
those  who  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  exercise  of  any  relig¬ 
ious  ceremony  shall  be  punished  severely.  If  troops  are  need¬ 
ed  to  carry  this  order  into  effect,  they  will  be  supplied  upon 
request.” 


FONT  IN  OLD  CHURCH  OF 
SAN  FRANCISCO. 


GUATEMALA  CITY. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  GUATEMALA. 


Guatemala  has  had  three  capitals,  all  called  Guatemala 
City,  since  the  Conquest.  The  first  was  founded  by  Alva¬ 
rado  in  1524,  and  buried  under  a  flood  of  sand  and  water  in 
1541.  The  second  capital  was  founded  the  same  year,  a  few 
miles  eastward  of  the  old  site,  and  was  destroyed  by  an  earth¬ 
quake  in  1773.  The  present  capital  is  the  largest  and  by  far 
the  finest  city  in  Central  America,  and  is  more  modern  in 
its  appearance  than  any  other.  It  is  situated  in  what  is  called 
the  tierra  templacla ,  or  temperate  zone,  about  forty-five  hun¬ 
dred  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  at  the  northern  extremity 
of  an  extensive  and  beautiful  plain,  and  has  a  climate  that  is 
very  attractive.  The  plain  upon  which  it  stands  is  by  no 
means  as  fertile  as  many  other  portions  of  the  country,  and  is 
deficient  in  water.  The  supply  which  is  used  by  the  people 
is  brought  for  a  distance  of  fifteen  miles  in  an  aqueduct,  which 
has  the  honor  of  having  been  described  by  Charles  Dickens  in 
his  sketch  of  “  The  Flying  Dutchman.”  These  water-works 
were  commenced  as  far  back  as  1S32,  and  involved  an  expendi¬ 
ture  of  over  two  million  dollars,  but  without  them  the  city 
could  not  have  prospered. 

Guatemala  City  is  not  favorably  situated  for  commerce,  as 
it  is  a  considerable  distance  from  both  seas,  and  is  shut  out 
from  the  most  productive  portions  of  the  country  by  walls  of 
mountains.  The  city  is  laid  out  in  quadrilateral  form,  and 
formerly  was  surrounded  by  a  great  wall  through  which  it 
was  entered  by  gates  opening  in  various  directions.  It  covers 
a  vast  area  of  territory  for  a  place  of  its  population,  as  the 
houses,  like  those  of  other  Central  American  cities,  are  very 


VIEW  OF  GUATEMALA  CITY, 


GUATEMALA. 


63 


t,£v 


large,  and  enclose  attractive  gardens.  During  the  last  twelve 
years,  under  the  presidency  of  General  Barrios,  Guatemala 
has  made  rapid  progress,  and  hut  for  the  low  and  common¬ 
place  appearance  of  the  houses  would  resemble  the  more  mod¬ 
ern  cities  of  Europe.  All  the  streets  are  paved,  with  gutters 
in  the  centre,  and  have  broad  paths  of  flag-stones  on  each  side 
for  foot-passengers. 

Antigua  Guatemala,  the  old  capital,  thirty  miles  to  the 
westward  of  the  new,  is  still  a  place  of  considerable  impor¬ 
tance,  and  in  its  time  was  far  superior  to  the  present  capital 
in  size  and  appearance.  Previous  to  its  destruction  in  1773 
there  were  but  two  cities  on  the  American  hemisphere  which 
compared  with  it  in  population,  wealth,  and  magnificence. 
These  were  the  City  of  Mexico,  and  Lima,  Peru.  New  York 
was  then  a  commercial  infant,  Boston  a  mere  village,  and  Chi¬ 
cago  yet  unknown.  But  here  was  a  city  in  which  were  cen¬ 
tred  the  ecclesiastical  and  political  interests  of  the  Central 
American  colonies,  where  millions  of  dollars  were  spent  in 
erecting  churches,  convents,  and  monasteries,  which  covered 
acres  of  ground,  and  beautiful  residences  whose  shattered 
portals  still  bear  the  escutcheons  of  the  noble  families  who 
ruled  the  city  and  cultivated  the  plantations  of  coffee,  sugar, 
and  cochineal. 

Antigua,  as  it  is  now  called  (properly  old  Guatemala),  was 
not  only  the  scene  of  wealth  and  influence,  and  the  commer¬ 
cial  metropolis  of  the  country,  but  the  home  of  the  most 
learned  men  of  all  Spanish  America,  the  seat  of  great  schools 
of  theology,  science,  and  art,  for  two  hundred  years  the  Ath¬ 
ens  and  Rome  of  the  New  World,  the  residence  of  the  univer¬ 
sity,  as  well  as  the  Inquisition,  and  the  headquarters  of  those 
untiring  apostles  of  evil,  the  Jesuits.  The  population  is  said 
to  have  been  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  thousand.  It  is  not 
known  that  a  census  was  ever  taken,  and  this  estimate  is  based 
upon  the  size  of  the  city  and  number  of  inhabitants  its  ruined 
walls  could  have  contained.  It  is  situated  in  the  centre  of  a 
great  valley,  between  the  twin  volcanoes  Agua  and  Fuego; 
and  as  the  old  Spanish  chroniclers  used  to  say,  had  Paradise 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


64 


on  one  side  and  the  Inferno  on  the  other.  The  beauty  of  its 
position  and  the  richness  of  the  adjacent  country,  the  gran¬ 
deur  of  the  scenery  that  surrounds  it,  have  called  forth  the 
most  extravagant  admiration  from  travellers,  and  have  made 
it  the  theme  of  the  native  poets.  Mr.  Stephens,  who  wrote 
the  most  elaborate  sketch  of  Central  America  we  have,  some 
forty  years  ago,  says  that  Antigua  Guatemala  is  surrounded 
by  more  natural  beauty  than  any  location  he  had  ever  seen 
during  the  whole  course  of  his  travels.  The  city  is  watered 
by  a  stream  bearing  the  poetical  name  of  El  Rio  Pensativo, 
which  encircles  the  mountains  and  winds  about  through  the 
plain  in  most  graceful  curves.  It  has  for  its  tributaries  many 
rivulets  that  water  the  plain,  anil  finally  falls  over  a  cataract 
and  flows  through  the  valley  below  to  the  sea. 

This  valley  was  formerly  famous  for  the  culture  of  cochi¬ 
neal,  and  much  wealth  was  derived  from  this  source  before 
aniline  dyes  drove  it  out  of  the  market.  The  cochineal  is  a 
little  insect  which  clings  to  the  leaves  of  a  species  of  the  cac¬ 
tus,  known  as  the  nopal,  and  in  the  natural  state  the  white 
hair  upon  its  body  causes  the  leaves  to  look  as  if  they  were 
covered  with  hoar-frost.  Before  the  rainy  season  sets  in  the 
leaves  of  the  nopal  are  cut  close  to  the  ground  and  hung  up 
under  a  shed  for  protection.  Then  they  are  scraped  with  a 
dull  knife,  and  the  insects  are  killed  by  being  baked  in  a  hot 
oven  or  dipped  into  boiling  water.  If  the  first  process  is  used, 
the  insects  become  a  brownish  color,  and  furnish  a  scarlet  or 
crimson  dye.  Those  killed  by  baking  are  black,  and  are  used 
for  blue  and  purple  dyes.  They  are  then  packed  up  in  little 
casks,  covered  with  hides  to  keep  out  the  moisture,  and  sent 
to  market,  being  valued  at  several  dollars  a  pound.  The  great 
part  of  the  expense  is  due  to  the  time  and  trouble  required  to 
detach  the  insects  from  the  nopal,  two  ounces  being  considered 
a  fair  result  of  a  day’s  labor ;  and  it  is  said  that  it  requires  sev¬ 
enty  thousand  to  make  a  pound.  'When  they  are  dried  they 
look  like  coarse  powder. 

The  first  capital  was  founded  by  Alvarado,  the  Conqueror. 
The  exploits  of  Cortez  in  Mexico  had  become  known  among 


RUINS  OF  THE  OLD  PALACE  AT  ANTIGUA  GUATEMALA 


GUATEMALA. 


67 


the  Indian  tribes  in  the  south,  and  the  native  kings  sent  an 
embassy  to  him  offering  their  allegiance  to  the  crown  of  Spain. 
Cortez  received  the  embassy  with  distinction,  and  sent  Alva¬ 
rado  back  with  them  to  take  possession  of  the  country.  In 
1523  Alvarado  left  the  City  of  Mexico  with  three  hundred 
Spanish  soldiers  and  a  large  body  of  natives,  and  nearly  a  year 
later  arrived  at  a  place  at  the  foot  of  the  volcano  Antigua, 
called  by  the  Indians  Almolonga,  meaning  in  their  language 
“a  spring  of  water.”  On  the  25th  of  July,  1521,  the  festival 
of  St.  James,  the  patron  saint  of  Spain,  Alvarado,  under  a  tree 
which  is  still  standing,  assembled  his  horsemen,  the  Mexican 
Indians  who  had  accompanied  him,  and  as  many  of  the  natives 
of  the  country  as  could  crowd  around,  when  the  chaplain, 
Juan  Godinez,  said  mass,  invoking  the  protection  of  the  apos¬ 
tle,  and  christening  the  city  he  intended  to  build  there  with 
the  name  of  San  Diego  de  los  Cabeleleros — the  City  of  St. 
James,  the  Gentleman.  After  these  religious  services,  Alvarado 
assumed  authority  as  governor,  and  appointed  his  subordinates. 

For  fifteen  years  thousands  of  Indians  were  kept  at  work 
building  the  city.  A  church  was  the  first  structure  raised ; 
but  in  September,  1541,  there  came  a  calamity  which  entirely 
destroyed  the  place,  and  buried  more  than  half  the  inhabitants 
under  the  ruins,  among  whom  was  the  Donna  Beatrice  de  la 
Queba,  the  wife  of  Alvarado.  It  had  rained  incessantly  for 
three  days,  and  on  the  fourth  the  fury  of  the  wind,  the  inces¬ 
sant  lightning  and  dreadful  thunder,  were  indescribable.  At 
two  o’clock  in  the  morning  the  earthquake  shocks  became  so 
violent  that  the  people  were  unable  to  stand.  Shortly  after 
an  enormous  body  of  water  rushed  down  from  the  mountain, 
forcing  with  it  large  pieces  of  rock,  trees,  and  entirely  over¬ 
whelming  the  town  with  an  avalanche  of  earth  and  ashes. 

It  has  generally  been  assumed,  and  is  believed  by  the  peo¬ 
ple,  that  this  flow  of  water  was  a  real  eruption,  and  for  that 
reason  the  volcano  was  named  Agua.  The  theory  of  some 
scientists  is,  that  the  water  flowed  from  an  accumulation  of 
rain  and  snow  in  the  extinct  crater,  the  walls  of  which  were 
broken  through  by  the  pressure  during  the  earthquake.  Such 


68 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


a  tiling  is  not  only  doubtful,  but  almost  impossible ;  and  un¬ 
less  the  situation  of  the  crater  has  changed,  there  is  no  evi¬ 
dence  of  it.  Any  torrent  of  water  cast  from  the  crater  would 
have  gone  down  on  the  other  side  of  the  mountain,  and  there 
are  ashes  upon  the  slope  near  the  summit  which  must  have  lain 
there  for  hundreds  of  years.  About  three  thousand  feet  from 
the  summit  there  is  evidence  of  a  terrible  struggle  between 
a  storm  and  the  earth.  Great  trees  were  uprooted,  rocks 
were  hurled  from  their  places,  and  a  vast  fissure  is  seen,  fif¬ 
teen  or  sixteen  hundred  feet  deep,  extending  directly  to  the 
buried  city,  growing  in  depth  and  width  until  it  reaches  the 
valley.  From  this  gorge  came  the  mass  of  ashes  and  sand 
which  buried  the  first  Guatemala,  like  Sodom  and  Pompeii, 
and  it  must  have  been  carried  down  by  a  water-spout  or  some 
agent  of  that  sort. 

The  cathedral  was  buried  to  the  roof;  but  years  afterwards, 
when  the  sand  was  dug  away,  it  was  found  uninjured,  with 
all  its  contents  preserved,  because  of  the  interposition  of  St. 
James.  The  palace,  being  in  the  immediate  path  of  the  tor¬ 
rent,  was  undermined  and  overthrown  by  its  force.  The 
ruins,  half  covered  by  sand,  are  the  only  remaining  evidences 
of  the  massive  grandeur  of  the  building,  one  of  whose  angles 
points  in  the  direction  from  which  the  water  came.  Many 
excavations  have  been  made  in  search  of  treasure,  as  Alvarado 
had  the  reputation  of  keeping  there  stores  of  silver  and  gold. 
They  have  resulted  in  no  remunerative  discovery,  but  have 
disclosed  some  fine  carvings,  wonderful  frescos,  and  other 
evidences  of  the  beauty  which  the  place  is  said  to  have  pos¬ 
sessed.  Over  its  ruins  to-day  stands  a  low-browed  house,  with 
an  inscription  over  its  door  reading,  “  Complimetaria  Esenia 
Para  XI nos  ” — A  Free  School  for  Girls. 

The  tree  under  which  ti'adition  says  Alvarado  and  his  sol¬ 
diers  first  camped,  and  where  Padre  Godinez  sanctified  the 
city  by  religious  services,  is  still  standing.  When  I  visited  it, 
the  most  noticeable  things  about  the  place  were  a  wagon  made 
by  the  Studebaker  Brothers,  of  South  Bend,  Indiana,  and  sev¬ 
eral  empty  beer  bottles,  bearing  the  brand  of  a  Chicago  brewer. 


GUATEMALA. 


69 


The  fountain  of  Almolonga,  which  first  induced  Alvarado  to 
select  this  spot  as  the  site  of  his  capital,  is  a  large  natural 
basin  of  clear  and  beautiful  water  shaded  by  trees.  It  has. 
been  walled  up  and  divided  off  into  apartments  for  bathing 
purposes  and  laundry  work ;  and  here  all  the  women  of  the 
town  come  to  wash  their  clothing;.  The  old  church  was  dug; 
out  of  the  sand,  and  is  still  standing.  In  one  corner  is  a  cham¬ 
ber  filled  with  the  skulls  and  bones  that  were  excavated  from 
the  ruins.  The  old  priest  who  was  responsible  for  the  spirit¬ 
ual  welfare  of  the  people  showed  us  over  the  ruins,  and  told 
us  stories  of  Alvarado  and  his  piety.  He  said  that  the  pict¬ 
ures,  hangings,  and  altar  ornaments  in  the  church  were  the 
same  that  were  placed  there  in  Alvarado’s  time,  and  unlocking 
a  great  iron  chest  he  showed  us  communion  vessels,  incense 


ALVARADO’S  TREE, 


70 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


urns,  crosses,  and  banners  of  solid  gold  and  silver.  Among 
other  things  was  a  magnificent  crown  of  gold,  which  was  pre¬ 
sented  to  the  church  by  one  of  the  Philips  of  Spain.  It  was 
originally  studded  with  diamonds,  emeralds,  and  other  jewels, 
but  they  have  been  removed,  and  the  settings  are  now  empty. 


ANCIENT  AKCHES. 


Yankee-like,  we  tried  to  buy  some  of  these  treasures,  for  they 
were  the  richest  I  had  seen  at  any  place,  but  the  old  priest 
refused  all  pecuniary  temptations,  and  crossed  himself  rever¬ 
ently  as  he  put  the  sacred  vessels  away.  The  onlv  people 
who  patronize  this  church  are  the  Indians,  who,  to  the  num¬ 
ber  of  two  or  three  thousand,  live  in  the  neighborhood,  and 
the  ancient  vessels  are  never  used  in  these  days,  but  are  kept 
as  curiosities. 

The  second  city  of  Guatemala  was  built  about  three  miles 


GUATEMALA. 


71 


THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW. 

from  the  original  one,  a  little  farther  down,  and  nearly  at  the 
foot  of  the  volcano  Fuego.  Both  of  these  ruined  cities  offer 
the  greatest  attractions  to  the  antiquarian,  but  few  have  eve? 


72 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


visited  them,  and  very  little  has  been  written  of  either  place. 
In  Antigua,  as  the  second  Guatemala  is  called,  is  the  most  ex¬ 
tensive  collection  of  ruins  that  can  be  found  in  this  hemi¬ 
sphere.  From  a  tower  of  the  cathedral  one  can  see  on  either 
side  the  ruins  .of  many  churches,  monasteries,  convents,  and 
miles  of  public  and  private  residences,  large  and  costly ;  some 
with  walls  still  standing,  liberally  ornamented  with  stucco  or 
carved  stone,  but  roofless,  without  doors  or  windows,  and  trees 
growing  within  them. 

The  ruins  of  forty-five  churches  can  be  counted,  and  nearly 
every  one  of  them  had  a  convent  or  monastery  attached. 
Some  cover  several  acres,  and  have  cells  for  five  or  six  hun¬ 
dred  monks  or  nuns.  Several  of  the  churches  are  as  large  as 
the  cathedral  in  New  York.  They  are  not  so  much  ruined 
but  Jhat  their  outlines  can  be  traced,  showing  the  noble  ar¬ 
chitecture  and  costly  work  by  which  they  were  built.  The 
force  of  the  earthquake  can  be  seen  by  broken  pillars  of  solid 
stone  five  or  six  feet  in  diameter ;  walls  of  ten  or  fifteen  feet 
thickness  were  shaken  into  fragments,  and  buildings  with 
foundations  of  stone  as  deep  and  solid  as  those  of  the  Capitol 
at  Washington  were  crumbled  into  dust.  About  ten  per  cent, 
of  the  houses  have  been  rebuilt,  but  the  remainder  are  still  in 
ruins.  The  inhabitants  occupy  the  old  residences  that  have 
been  restored,  but  appear  to  know  little  of  the  place  as  it  was 
before  the  earthquake.  They  have  forgotten  what  their  fa¬ 
thers  told  them,  and  no  attempt  has  ever  been  made  to  secure 
a  permanent  and  accurate  record  of  the  antique  conditions. 

In  the  centre  of  the  town  is  a  great  plaza,  which,  as  usual  in 
all  of  the  Central  American  capitals,  is  surrounded  by  public 
buildings  and  the  cathedral.  In  the  centre  stands  a  noble 
fountain,  which  is  surrounded  every  morning  by  market-wom¬ 
en  selling  the  fruit  and  vegetables  of  the  country.  The  old 
palace  has  been  partially  restored,  and  displays  upon  its  front 
the  armorial  bearing  granted  by  the  Emperor  Charles  the 
Fifth  to  the  loyal  and  noble  capital  in  which  the  Viceroy  of 
Central  America  lived.  Upon  the  crest  of  the  building  is  a 
statue  of  the  Apostle  St.  James  on  horseback,  clad  in  armor, 


GUATEMALA. 


73 


and  brandishing  a  sword.  The  majestic  cathedral,  300  feet 
long,  120  feet  broad,  110  feet  high,  and  lighted  by  fifty  win¬ 
dows,  has  been  restored,  and  within  it  services  are  held  every 
morning,  the  faithful  being  called  to  mass  by  a  peon  pounding 
upon  a  large  and  resonant  gong. 

Without  warning,  on  a  Sunday  night  in  1773,  the  disas¬ 
ter  came,  and  the  proudest  city  in  the  New  World  was  for- 


HOW  THE  OLD  TOWN  LOOKS  NOW. 


n 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ever  humbled.  The  roof  of  the  cathedral  fell ;  all  the  other 
churches  were  shaken  to  pieces ;  the  great  monasteries,  which 
had  been  standing  for  centuries,  and  were  thought  to  be  use¬ 
ful  for  many  centu¬ 
ries  more,  crumbled  in 
an  instant.  The  dead 
were  never  counted, 
and  the  wounded  died 
from  lack  of  relief. 
Those  who  escaped  fled 
to  the  mountains,  and 
the  earthquake  contin¬ 
ued  so  violent  that  few 
returned  to  the  ruins 
for  many  days.  The 
volcano,  whose  single 
shudder  shook  down 
the  accumulated  gran¬ 
deur  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years,  has' 
since  been  almost  idle, 
but  is  smoking  con¬ 
stantly,  and  emitting 
sulphurous  vapors 
which  tell  of  the  fur¬ 
nace  beneath.  As  if 
satisfied  with  its  mo¬ 
ment’s  work,  it  stands 
fragment  of  a  ruined  monastery.  at  rest,  tempting  man 

to  try  again  to  build 
another  magnificent  city,  as  firm  as  he  can  make  it,  for  an¬ 
other  test  of  strength.  The  people,  like  the  dwellers  over 
the  buried  Herculaneum,  seem  to  have  no  fear  of  ruin  or  dis¬ 
aster,  because,  as  very  respectable  citizens  will  tell  you.  the 
volcano  which  did  the  damage  has  since  been  blessed  by  a 
priest. 


In  one  of  the  old  monasteries,  established  by  the  Franciscan 


GUATEMALA. 


75 


Friars,  is  a  tree  from  which  four  different  kinds  of  fruit  may 
be  plucked  at  one  time — the  orange,  lemon,  lime,  and  a  sweet 
fruit  called  by  the  Spanish  the  limone.  It  was  a  horticultural 
experiment  of  the  Friars  many  hundred  years  ago,  and  still 
stands  as  a  monument  of  their  experimental  industry.  It  was 
they  who  first  introduced  the  cultivation  of  coffee  from  Ara¬ 
bia  into  these  countries,  and  who  discovered  the  use  of  that 
curious  insect  the  cochineal.  The  latter  used  to  be  an  exten¬ 
sive  article  of  commerce,  but  the  cheapness  of  the  aniline 
dyes  has  driven  it  out  of  the  market.  How  it  is  cultivated 
only  for  local  consumption,  and  is  extensively  used  by  the 
natives,  whose  cotton  and  woollen  fabrics  are  gayly  dyed  in 
colors  that  will  endure  any  amount  of  water  or  sunshine. 
Thirty  years  ago  two 
million  tons  were  ex¬ 
ported  annually,  but 
now  very  little  goes 
out  of  the  country. 

The  progress  of 
Guatemala  during  the 
last  twelve  years,  and 
the  advancement  of 
the  country  towards 
a  modern  standard  of 
civilization,  has  been 
very  rapid,  and  it  is 
due  to  the  energy  and 
determination  of  one 
man,  Jose  Ruff  no  Bar¬ 
rios,  who  stands  next, 
if  not  equal,  to  Mora- 
zan  as  a  patriot  and 
benefactor  of  his  coun¬ 
try.  President  Bar¬ 
rios  studied  the  conditions  of  social  and  political  economy  in 
the  United  States  and  European  nations,  and  used  a  remark¬ 
able  amount  of  energy  to  introduce  them  among  his  own  peo- 


76 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


pie.  There  has  been  no  man  in  Central  or  South  America 
with  more  progressive  ideas  or  more  ardent  ambition  for  the 
advancement  of  his  countrymen. 

The  prevailing  opinion  of  President  Barrios  is  that  he  was 
a  brutal  ruffian.  He  drove  out  of  the  country  many  political 
opponents  who  occupied  themselves  by  telling  stories  of  his 
cruelty,  some  of  which  were  doubtless  true.  The  methods 
which  he  habitually  used  to  keep  the  people  in  order  would 
not  be  tolerated  in  the  more  civilized  lands.  But  in  estimat¬ 
ing  his  true  character,  the  good  he  accomplished  should  be 
considered  as  well  as  the  evil.  Until  the  history  of  Central 
America  shall  be  written  years  hence,  when  the  mind  can 
reflect  calmly  and  impartially  upon  the  scenes  of  this  decade, 
when  public  benefits  can  be  accurately  measured  with  indi¬ 
vidual  errors,  and  the  strides  of  progress  in  material  develop¬ 
ment  can  be  justly  estimated,  the  true  character  of  General 
Barrios  will  not  be  understood  or  appreciated  even  by  his 
own  countrymen.  Like  all  vigorous  and  progressive  men, 
like  all  men  of  strong  character  and  forcible  measures,  he  had 
bitter,  vindictive  enemies,  who  would  have  assassinated  him 
had  they  been  able  to  do  so,  and  repeatedly  tried  it.  There 
was  nothing  too  harsh  for  them  to  say  of  him,  living  or  dead, 
no  cruelties  too  barbarous  for  them  to  accuse  him  of,  no  re¬ 
venge  too  severe  for  them  to  visit  upon  him  or  his  memory. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  people  who  did  not  cherish  a  spirit  of 
revenge,  who  had  no  political  ambition,  and  no  schemes  to  be 
disconcerted,  who  are  interested  in  the  development  of  Cen¬ 
tral  America,  and  are  enjoying  the  benefits  of  the  progress 
Guatemala  has  made,  regard  Barrios  as  the  best  friend  and 
ablest  leader,  the  wisest  ruler  his  country  ever  had,  and  would 
have  been  glad  if  his  life  could  have  been  prolonged  and  his 
power  extended  over  the  entire  continent.  They  are  willing 
to  concede  to  him  not  only  honorable  motives,  but  the  wor¬ 
thy  ambition  of  trying  to  lift  his  country  to  the  level  with 
the  most  advanced  nations  of  the  earth.  Ten  more  years  of 
the  same  progress  that  Guatemala  made  under  Barrios  would 
place  her  upon  a  par  with  any  of  the  States  of  Europe,  or 


GUATEMALA. 


77 


those  of  the  United  States.  While  he  did  not  furnish  a  gov¬ 
ernment  of  the  people,  by  the  people,  it  was  a  government  for 
the  people,  provided  and  administered  by  a  man  of  remark¬ 
able  ability,  independence,  ambition,  and  extraordinary  pride. 


FRANCISCO  MORAZAN. 


While  his  iron  hand  crushed  all  opposition,  and  held  a  power 
that  yielded  to  nothing,  he  was,  nevertheless,  generous  to  the 
poor,  lenient  to  those  who  would  submit  to  him,  and  ready  to 
do  anything  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  people  or  pro¬ 
mote  their  welfare. 

That  a  man  of  his  ancestry  and  early  associations  should 


78 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


have  brought  this  republic  to  the  condition  in  which  he  left 
it  when  he  died  is  remarkable.  Without  education  himself, 
he  enacted  a  law  requiring  the  attendance  at  school  of  all  chil¬ 
dren  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen  years,  and  rigor¬ 
ously  enforced  it.  People  who  refused  to  obey  this  law,  or 
sent  their  children  to  private  schools,  or  educated  them  at 
home,  were  compelled  to  pay  a  heavy  fine  for  the  privilege. 
He  established  a  university  at  Guatemala  City  and  free 
schools  in  every  city  of  the  republic,  to  the  support  of  which 
a  larger  proportion  of  the  public  revenues  were  appropriated 
than  in  any  one  of  the  United  States  or  the  nations  of  Eu¬ 
rope.  lie  founded  hospitals,  asylums,  and  other  institutions 
of  charity  with  his  own  means,  or  supported  them  by  appro¬ 
priations  from  the  public  treasury.  lie  compelled  physicians 
to  bp  educated  properly  before  they  were  allowed  to  prac¬ 
tise  ;  he  punished  crime  so  severely  that  it  was  almost  un¬ 
known  ;  he  regulated  the  sale  of  liquors,  so  that  a  drunken 
man  was  never  seen  upon  the  streets ;  he  enforced  the  observ¬ 
ance  of  the  Sabbath  bv  closing  the  stores  and  market-places, 
which  in  other  Spanish-American  republics  are  always  open, 
and  was  active  for  the  material  as  for  the  moral  welfare  of 
the  people.  During  the  twelve  years  he  was  in  power  the 
country  made  greater  progress,  and  the  citizens  enjoyed  great¬ 
er  prosperity,  than  during  any  period  of  all  the  three  centu¬ 
ries  and  a  half  of  previous  history. 

His  ambition  to  reunite  the  five  Central  American  repub¬ 
lics  in  a  confederacy  was  not  successful ;  but  it  was  inspired 
by  a  desire  to  do  for  the  neighboring  States  what  he  had  done 
for  Guatemala.  His  ambition  was  for  the  advancement  and 
development  of  Central  America ;  and  while  the  means  he 
used  cannot  be  entirely  approved,  his  purpose  should  be  ap¬ 
plauded.  His  crusade  was  quite  as  important  in  the  civiliza¬ 
tion  of  this  continent  as  the  bloody  work  England  attempted 
to  accomplish  in  Egypt  and  the  Soudan.  He  was  better 
than  his  race,  was  far  in  advance  of  his  generation,  and  while 
he  did  not  succeed  in  lifting  his  people  entirely  out  of  the 
ignorance  and  degradation  in  which  they  were  kept  by  the 


GUATEMALA. 


79 


priests,  what  he  did  do  cannot  but  result  in  the  permanent 
good,  not  only  of  Guatemala,  but  of  the  nations  which  sur¬ 
round  that  republic. 


CHURCH  OP  SAN  FRANCESCA,  GUATEMALA  LA  ANTIGUA. 


After  the  independence  of  the  Central  American  colonies 
the  priests  ruled  the  country.  Their  excesses  awakened  a 
spirit  of  opposition,  which  finally  culminated  in  a  revolution. 


80 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  famous  Morazan  became  dictator,  and  might  have  been 
successful  but  for  a  decree  he  issued  abolishing  the  con¬ 
vents  and  monasteries,  and  confiscating  the  entire  property 
of  the  Church.  This  was  in  184:3.  Led  by  the  priests,  the 
people  rose  in  rebellion  ;  but  Morazan  retained  his  power  until 
an  unknown  man,  tall,  dark,  and  blood-thirsty,  came  out  of 
the  mountains — an  Indian  without  a  name,  who  could  neither 
read  nor  write,  whose  occupation  had  been  that  of  a  swine¬ 
herd,  like  Pizarro,  who  had  graduated  in  the  profession  of  a 
bandit,  and  led  a  gang  of  murderous  outlaws  in  the  mount¬ 
ains.  Urged  by  a  greed  for  plunder,  this  remarkable  man, 
Rafael  Carera,  came  out  from  his  stronghold  and  joined  the 
Church  party  in  their  war  against  the  Government. 

His  successes  as  a  guerilla  were  so  great  that  what  was 
a  small,  independent  band  became  the  main  army  of  the 
opposition,  and  he  led  a  horde  of  disorganized  plunderers 
towards  the  capital.  The  priests  called  him  the  Chosen  of 
God,  and  attributed  to  him  the  divinely  inspired  mission  of 
restoring  the  Church  to  power.  The  pious  churchmen  rushed 
to  his  standard,  and  fought  by  the  side  and  under  the  com¬ 
mand  of  the  savage,  whose  only  motive  was  plunder.  He 
drove  Morazan  into  Costa  Rica,  and  proclaimed  himself  Dic¬ 
tator.  The  Church  party  were  amazed  at  the  arrogance  of 
the  bandit,  but  had  to  submit,  and  he  soon  developed  into  a 
full-fledged  tyrant,  ruling  over  Guatemala  until  his  death  for 
a  period  of  thirty  years. 

When  Carera  died  there  was  no  man  to  take  his  place,  and 
the  Church  party  began  to  decay.  The  Liberals  gathered 
force  and  began  a  revolution.  In  their  ranks  was  an  obscure 
young  man  from  the  borders  of  Mexico,  from  a  valley  which 
produced  Juarez,  the  liberator  of  Mexico,  Diaz,  the  president 
of  that  republic,  and  other  famous  men.  He  began  to  show 
military  skill  and  force  of  character,  and  when  the  Church 
party  was  overthrown  and  the  Liberal  leader  was  proclaimed 
President,  Rufino  Barrios  became  the  general  of  the  army. 
He  soon  resigned,  however,  and  returned  to  his  coffee  plan¬ 
tation  on  the  borders  of  Mexico.  But  the  revival  of  the 


GUATEMALA. 


81 


From  that  date  until  1885  there  was  but  one  man  in  Gua¬ 
temala,  and  he  was  Barrios.  He  began  his  career  by  adopt¬ 
ing  the  policy  that  Morazan  had  failed  to  enforce.  He  ex¬ 
pelled  the  monks  and  nuns  from  the  country,  confiscated  the 
Church  property,  robbed  the  priests  of  their  power,  and,  like 
Juarez  in  Mexico,  liberated  the  people  from  a  servitude  under 
6 


Church  party  shortly  after  caused  him  to  return  to  military 
life,  and  when  the  Liberal  president  died,  he  was,  in  1873, 
chosen  his  successor. 


ONE  OF  FIFTY-SEVEN  RUINED  MONASTERIES. 


82 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


which  they  had  suffered  since  the  original  settlement  of  the 
colonies.  Then  he  visited  the  United  States  and  Europe  to 
study  the  science  of  government ;  sent  men  abroad  to  be 
educated,  at  Government  expense,  in  the  arts  and  sciences 
and  political  economy,  and  upon  their  return  placed  them  in 
subordinate  positions  under  him.  He  offered  the  most  gen¬ 
erous  inducements  to  immigrants,  and  the  country  filled  up 
with  agricultural  settlers,  merchants,  and  mechanics.  The 
population  increased,  and  the  country  began  to  grow'  in  pros¬ 
perity  with  the  development  of  its  natural  resources,  and 
there  was  a  “boom”  in  Guatemala  the  like  of  wdiicli  was 
never  before  witnessed  on  that  continent. 

Although  he  found  Guatemala  in  a  condition  of  moral  deg¬ 
radation  and  commercial  stagnation,  he  educated  the  people 
in  a  remarkable  degree  to  an  appreciation  of  his  own  ideas, 
and  by  introducing  many  modern  improvements  succeeded  in 
inspiring  them  with  his  own  ambition,  so  that  they  co-operat¬ 
ed  with  him  in  any  measure  for  the  welfare  of  the  country. 
He  secured  the  enactment  of  laws  which  have  been  of  great 
benefit,  and  compelled  the  natives  to  submit  to  what  they 
first  regarded  as  hardships  but  now  accept  as  blessings. 
Roadways  were  constructed  from  the  sea-coast  to  the  interior, 
so  that  produce  could  get  to  market ;  diligence  lines  -were 
established  at  Government  expense ;  liberal  railroad  contracts 
were  made,  telegraph  lines  were  erected,  and  all  the  modern 
facilities  were  introduced.  The  credit  of  the  country  was  re¬ 
stored  by  a  careful  readjustment  of  its  finances,  and  encour¬ 
agement  from  the  Government  brought  in  a  large  amount  of 
European  capital.  So  that  to-day,  while  the  other  Central 
American  States  are  still  in  the  condition  that  they  Avere 
one  hundred  years  ago,  or  have  retrograded,  Guatemala  has 
stepped  to  the  front,  rich,  powerful,  progressive,  and  but  for 
the  peculiar  appearance  of  the  houses,  the  language  of  the 
people,  and  the  customs  they  have  inherited  from  their  an¬ 
cestors,  Guatemala  is  not  different  from  the  new  States  of 
our  great  West. 

Under  a  compulsory  education  law  free  public-schools  have 


GUATEMALA. 


83 


FACADE  OF  AN  OLD  CHURCH. 


been  established  in  every  department  of  the  republic,  at  an 
expense  aggregating  one-tenth  of  the  entire  revenues  of  the 
Government,  an  amount  larger  in  proportion  than  is  paid  by 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


84 


any  of  the  United  States.  Not  only  is  tuition  free,  but  text¬ 
books  are  furnished  by  the  Government.  In  1884  the  total 
number  of  schools  in  the  republic  was  934,  with  an  attendance 
of  42,549  pupils,  supported  at  a  cost  of  $451,809,  being  an 
average  cost  to  the  public  treasury  of  about  ten  dollars  per 
pupil.  Of  this  aggregate  850  were  public  graded  schools  with 
39,042  pupils,  55  were  private  schools  wyith  1780  pupils,  20 
■were  academies  for  the  education  of  teachers  and  others  de¬ 
siring  education  in  the  higher  branches.  In  addition  to  these 
the  Government  supports  a  university,  with  a  faculty  of  high 
reputation,  some  of  them  imported  from  Germany  and  Spain, 
who  are  paid  salaries  of  four  thousand  dollars  a  year  each,  a 
compensation  greater  than  is  received  by  instructors  in  the 
colleges  of  the  United  States,  except  in  rare  instances.  Under 
this  university  are  two  lawr-schools  with  fifty-two  pupils,  one 
school  of  engineering  with  eleven  pupils,  a  music-school  with 
sixty-six  pupils,  a  school  of  arts  and  drawing  with  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  seventeen  pupils,  and  a  commercial  college  with  fifty 
pupils,  besides  a  deaf  and  dumb  asylum  with  nine  inmates.  It 
is  required  that  students  in  this  university  shall  study  the 
English  language,  and  in  a  female  college  adjacent  to  it  noth¬ 
ing  but  American  text-books  are  used.  No  language  but  Eng¬ 
lish  is  spoken  by  the  pupils  residing  in  the  institution,  and  the 
teachers  as  well  as  the  principal  are  from  the  United  States. 
This  system  of  education  was  established  about  ten  yearn  ago, 
but  has-  gradually  improved  until  it  has  reached  its  present 
importance,  and  cannot  but  have  a  -wholesome  influence  in  the 
elevation  of  the  people  and  the  development  of  the  State. 

Having  overthrown  the  religion  in  which  the  people  had 
been  reared,  Barrios  recognized  the  necessity  of  providing 
some  better  substitute.  He  therefore,  through  the  British 
minister,  invited  the  Established  Church  of  England  to  send 
missionaries  to  Guatemala  ;  but  owing  to  the  disturbed  condi¬ 
tion  of  the  country  it  was  not  considered  advisable  to  com¬ 
mence  work  at  that  time,  and  the  opportunity  was  neglected. 
In  1883  President  Barrios  visited  New  York,  where  he  had 
conferences  with  the  officers  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 


GUATEMALA. 


85 


The  reception  of  the  President  on  his  return  to  the  country 
after  an  absence  of  nearly  two  years  was  a  royal  one,  and  the 
journey  from  San  Jose,  the  Pacific  seaport,  to  the  capital  of 
Guatemala  was  a  triumphal  march.  Of  all  the  honors,  of  all 
the  attentions  General  Barrios  received,  he  insisted  that  Mr. 
Hill  should  have  a  share,  and  the  blushing  young  parson 
found  himself  again  and  again  on  public  platforms,  with  the 
President  of  Guatemala  leaning  upon  his  shoulder  and  intro¬ 
ducing  him  to  the  people  as  his  friend.  This  demonstration 


A  REMNANT. 


Foreign  Missions,  which  resulted  in  diverting  the  Rev.  John 
C.  Hill,  of  Chicago,  who  was  en  route  to  China,  into  this  field 
of  labor.  Mr.  Hill  returned  with  the  President  to  Guatemala, 
receiving  a  cordial  welcome,  and  the  President  not  only  paid 
the  travelling  expenses  of  himself  and  family  from  his  own 
pocket,  but  the  freight  charges  upon  his  furniture,  and  pur¬ 
chased  the  equipment  necessary  for  the  establishment  of  a 
mission  and  school. 


86 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


had  its  purpose,  and  resulted  precisely  as  General  Barrios  in¬ 
tended  it  should.  He  meant  that  the  people  should  know 
that  he  had  taken  the  missionary  and  the  cause  he  represented 
under  the  patronage  of  the  Government,  and  expected  them 
to  show  the  same  respect  and  honor  he  bestowed  himself, 
lie  went  still  further.  He  placed  Mr.  Hill  in  one  of  his  own 
houses,  and  there  the  school  and  chapel  were  opened.  He 
sent  his  own  children  to  the  new  Sunday-school,  and  notified 
members  of  his  Cabinet  to  follow  his  example.  He  issued  a 
decree  to  the  Collectors  of  Customs  to  admit  free  of  duty  all 
articles  which  Mr.  Ilill  desired  to  import,  and  in  every  possi¬ 
ble  manner  showed  his  interest  in  the  success  of  the  work. 
The  Protestant  Mission  became  fashionable,  and  was  known 
as  the  President’s  “  pet.” 

The  encouragement  President  Barrios  gave  to  the  Presby¬ 
terian  Mission  was  an  example  the  people  were  glad  to  follow, 
and  the  mission  met  with  nothing  but  the  most  cordial  and 
respectful  treatment.  The  Catholics  looked  very  sour  at  the 
rapidity  with  which  the  breach  was  widened  in  the  walls  they 
were  nearly  four  hundred  years  in  erecting,  but  they  dared 
not  utter  even  a  remonstrance  against  those  favored  by  the 
potent  force  behind  the  military  guard.  The}7,  saw  the  monks 
and  nuns  expelled,  the  churches  sold  at  public  auction  for  the 
benefit  of  the  public  treasury,  and  with  a  muttered  curse 
against  the  power  by  which  all  these  things  were  done,  sub¬ 
mitted  servilely  to  his  will  for  fear  of  losing  what  they  had 
been  able  to  retain. 

Mrs.  Barrios  was  the  loveliest  woman  in  Guatemala ;  beau¬ 
tiful  in  character  as  well  as  person,  socially  brilliant  and  grace¬ 
ful,  charitable  beyond  all  precedent  in  a  country  where  the 
poor  are  usually  permitted  to  take  care  of  themselves,  gener¬ 
ous  and  hospitable,  a  good  mother  to  a  fine  family  of  children, 
and  a  devoted  wife,  loyal  to  all  the  President's  ambitions,  and 
an  enthusiastic  supporter  of  all  his  schemes.  Like  a  wise  man 
who  knows  the  perils  which  constantly  surround  him,  and  the 
uncertainty  of  the  head  which  weal’s  a  crown  in  these  coun¬ 
tries,  he  had  made  ample  provision  for  his  family  by  purchas- 


GUATEMALA. 


87 


ing  for  Mrs.  Barrios  a  handsome  residence  in  Fifth  Avenue 
near  Sixty -fifth  Street,  New  York,  and  investing  about  a  mill¬ 
ion  dollars  in  her  name  in  other  New  York  real  estate.  His 
life  was  also  insured  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  in  New  York  companies,  which,  it  must  be  said,  carried 
a  hazardous  risk,  as  there  were  hundreds  of  men  who  lived  only 
to  see  Barrios  buried.  Yery  few  of  them  were  in  Guatemala, 
however,  during  his  lifetime.  They  did  not  find  the  atmos¬ 
phere  agreeable  there.  They  were  exiles  in  Nicaragua,  Costa 
Bica,  Mexico,  California,  or  elsewhere,  waiting  for  a  chance 
to  give  him  a  dose  of  dynamite  or  prick  him  with  a  dagger. 

Mrs.  Barrios  and  her  children  talk  English  as  well  as  if  they 
had  always  lived  in  New  York.  While  the  President  himself 
could  not  speak  the  language  fluently,  he  could  understand 
what  was  said  to  him,  and  apologized  for  what  he  called  a 
misfortune,  on  the  ground  that  he  did  not  have  the  opportu¬ 
nity  to  learn  it  until  he  was  too  old  to  master  its  intricacies. 
But  he  required  English  to  be  taught  in  all  the  common- 
schools,  and  the  children  use  nothing  but  American  text-books. 


FORT  OF  SAN  JOSE,  GUATEMALA. 


88 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


I  talked  with  him  one  day,  with  his  little  girl  as  an  inter¬ 
preter.  She  was  a  beautiful  child,  about  ten  years  of  age, 
and  when  she  said  she  was  an  American  (which  means  a  citi¬ 
zen  of  the  United  States)  the  President  patted  her  fondly  upon 
the  head  and  cried  “  bueno  ”  (good). 

Several  years  ago  there  was  a  conspiracy  to  assassinate  the 
President.  A  woman,  who  was  the  Mrs.  Surratt  of  the  plot, 
and  at  whose  house  the  conspirators  were  in  the  habit  of  meet¬ 
ing,  did  not  like  the  arrangement,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  the 
night  on  which  the  plan  was  to  be  carried  into  execution  re¬ 
vealed  the  whole  thing  to  the  President.  He  had  the  conspir¬ 
ators  arrested,  and  ordered  the  men  shot  who  proposed  to  rav¬ 
ish  his  wife,  but  he  pardoned  his  treacherous  private  secretary. 
The  latter  rewarded  the  President’s  generosity  by  forging  an 
order  to  the  commandant  of  the  prison  to  release  the  con¬ 
demned  men.  He  was  arrested  again,  confessed  his  crime, 
even  boasted  of  it,  and  was  shot  also.  Several  other  attempts 
were  made  to  assassinate  Barrios.  The  last  came  very  near 
being  successful.  He  was  on  his  way  to  the  theatre,  when 
three  men,  who  had  been  employed  by  an  ambitious  politician 
for  the  purpose,  threw  a  bomb  at  him.  He  coolly  stepped 
on  the  fuse,  extinguished  it,  picked  up  the  dose  of  death 
that  had  been  prepared  for  him,  and  remarked  to  his  com¬ 
panion, 

“  The  rascals  don't  know  how  to  kill  me !” 

The  leader  of  the  plot  was  sent  into  exile,  but  his  tools  were 
pardoned,  and  are  walking  the  streets  of  the  city  of  Guate¬ 
mala  to-day. 

The  prettiest  and  most  picturesque  of  the  native  costumes 
to  be  found  in  Spanish  America  is  worn  by  the  women  of 
Guatemala,  who  are  of  a  dark  complexion,  nearly  that  of  the 
mulatto  type,  but  are  famous  for  their  beauty  of  form.  A 
Guatemala  girl  in  her  native  costume  makes  as  pretty  a  pict¬ 
ure  as  one  can  find  anywhere.  Her  face  is  bright  and  pretty, 
her  figure  as  perfect  as  nature  unaided  by  art  can  be,  and  her 
movements  show  a  supple  grace  and  elasticity  that  cannot  be 
imitated  by  those  of  her  sex  who  are  encumbered  by  modern 


GUATEMALA. 


89 


articles  of  feminine  apparel.  Her  head  is  usually  bare,  in¬ 
doors  and  out,  and  her  thick  black  tresses  hang  in  braids  often 
reaching  to  her  heels. 

Her  garments  are  only  two — a  guipil  and  a  sabana.  The 
first  is  a  square  piece  of  cotton  of  coarse  texture,  covered  with 
embroidery  of  brilliant  colors  and  simple  but  artistic  designs. 


VNIEN8I  GATE,  GUATEMALA. 

In  the  centre  of  the  guipil  is  an  aperture  like  that  in  the  ordi¬ 
nary  poncho,  through  which  her  head  goes,  and  it  is  usually 
wide  enough  to  constitute,  when  worn,  a  low-neck  waist.  The 
ends  are  tucked  in  her  skirts  at  the  belt.  Her  bare  arms  come 
through  the  open  folds  of  her  guipil ,  and  when  she  raises 
them  her  side  is  exposed.  Her  skirt  is  a  straight  piece  of 
plaid  cotton  of  brilliant  colors,  hke  the  Scotch  plaids,  and  is 
wound  tightly  around  her  limbs.  It  is  secured  at  the  waist 


90 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


by  a  sash,  usually  of  scarlet,  woven  by  her  own  hands  of  the 
fibres  of  the  pita  grass,  and  executed  in  the  most  skilful  man¬ 
ner.  These  belts  in  their  texture  resemble  the  Persian  cam¬ 
el’ s-hair  shawl,  and  often  cost  months  of  labor.  Very  often 
the  name  of  the  owner,  and  sometimes  mottoes,  are  woven 
into  the  texture,  and  they  are  brought  away  from  the  country 
as  curiosities  by  travellers. 

Every  article  the  Guatemala  girl  wears  she  makes  with  her 
own  hands,  and  the  natives  of  that  country  are  as  ingenious, 
industrious,  and  intelligent  as  are  found  in  Spanish  America. 
Even  her  sandals  are  home-made,  and  her  little  stockingless 
feet  look  very  pretty  in  them.  The  small  size  of  the  hands 
and  feet  of  the  men  and  women  is  always  noticed  by  those 
who  visit  Guatemala,  and  they  are  usually  very  shapely  and 
delicately  formed. 

The  costume  which  has  been  described  is  worn  only  by  the 
peasants.  The  upper  classes  dress  just  as  they  would  in  New 
York,  and  the  fashions  are  followed  quite  as  closely.  The 
women  are  very  pretty,  but  have  the  habit  of  plastering  their 
faces  over  with  a  paste  or  rouge  that  makes  them  look  as  if 
they  had  been  poking  their  heads  into  a  flour-barrel.  This 
cosmetic  is  made  of  magnesia  and  the  whites  of  eggs,  stirred 
into  a  thick  paste,  and  plastered  on  without  regard  to  quan¬ 
tity.  The  natural  beauty  of  complexion  is  thus  concealed,  and 
in  time  totally  ruined.  There  is  a  Swiss  lady  at  the  head  of 
a  large  seminary  in  Guatemala  City  to  which  the  daughters 
of  the  aristocracy  are  sent.  She  has  forbidden  the  use  of  this 
plaster  by  the  young  ladies  under  her  charge  to  prevent  the 
boarding  pupils  from  destroying  their  fair  skins,  but  over  the 
day-scholars  she  has  no  control  out  of  school-hours.  Every 
morning  she  stands  at  the  entrance  with  a  basin  of  water,  a 
sponge,  and  a  towel,  and  puts  the  girls  through  a  system  of 
scrubbing  that  arouses  their  indignation. 

The  natives  are  fond  of  bright  colors,  and  have  a  remarka¬ 
ble  deftness  in  their  fingers,  which  hold  the  embroidery-needle 
as  well  as  the  hoe  and  machete.  The  guipils  are  embroid¬ 
ered  in  gay  tints  and  artistic  patterns,  and  a  group  of  peons 


GUATEMALA. 


91 


A  VOLCANIC  LAKE. 


returning  from  or  going  to  market  looks  as  quaint  and  pictu¬ 
resque  as  the  peasants  of  Normandy  or  Switzerland.  The 
women  are  short,  squarely  built,  and  very  muscular,  and  carry 
as  much  load  as  a  mule.  Their  cargo  is  always  borne  upon 
their  heads  in  a  large  basket,  and  they  seldom  walk,  but  move 
in  a  jog-trot,  with  a  swaying,  graceful  motion,  swinging  their 
arms  and  carrying  their  shoulders  as  erect  as  a  West  Point 
cadet.  They  travel  up  hill  and  down  without  changing  this 
gait,  and  make  about  six  miles  an  hour,  being  able  to  outstrip 
any  ordinary  horse  or  mule  not  only  in  speed  but  in  endurance. 
It  is  a  common  thing  to  see  a  woman  not  more  than  twenty- 
five  or  twenty-eight  years  of  age  coming  to  town  with  a  hun¬ 
dred  pounds  of  meat  or  vegetables  upon  her  head,  a  baby 
slung  in  a  reboso  or  blanket  fastened  around  her  hips,  and  sev- 


92 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


eral  children  from  six  to  twelve  years  of  age,  each  heavily 
laden,  trotting  along  by  her  side.  Almost  as  soon  as  they  are 
able  to  walk,  the  children  receive  loads  to  carry,  and  the  little 
ones  come  seven,  eight,  and  ten  miles  to  market  every  day  or 
so,  thinking  nothing  of  bearing  on  their  heads  a  weight  that 
would  be  a  burden  to  the  ordinary  man  of  North  America. 

The  men  do  not  carry  their  loads  upon  their  heads,  but  upon 
their  backs  in  a  pannier,  which  is  held  by  bands  around  the 
shoulders  and  across  the  forehead.  They  are  wonderfully 
strong  and  fleet  of  foot.  “  If  you  are  going  to  buy  wood  or 
hay,”  said  a  friend  who  has  lived  long  in  the  country,  “  al¬ 
ways  take  the  man’s  load.  You  will  get  more  than  if  you 
bought  the  load  of  a  mule.”  These  men  come  into  town  driv- 
ing  ahead  of  them  three  or  four  pack-mules  loaded  with  cof¬ 
fee,  sugar,  corn,  hay,  or  wood,  which  they  sell  to  the  commis¬ 
sion  merchants  or  at  the  market.  "When  the}7-  return  at  night 
to  their  homes  in  the  country  they  never  ride,  but  drive  the 
unladen  mules  ahead  of  them,  and  many  of  them  are  so  accus¬ 
tomed  to  a  weight  upon  their  backs  that  they  place  a  great 
stone  in  the  pannier  to  give  them  a  proper  balance. 

Some  are  very  fleet  of  foot.  Barrios  had  a  runner  attached 
to  his  retinue  of  whom  some  tall  stories  are  told.  He  was 
sent  as  a  courier  into  the  country  with  messages,  and  his 
average  speed  was  ten  miles  an  hour.  This  runner  was  kept 
pretty  busy  in  war  times,  and  was  constantly  in  motion.  Once 
he  carried  a  despatch  thirty-five  leagues  into  the  interior  and 
returned  with  the  answer  in  thirty-six  hours,  making  the  two 
hundred  and  ten  miles  over  the  mountains  at  six  miles  an  hour, 
including  detentions  and  delays  for  food  and  sleep. 

These  men  wear  short  trousers,  like  bathing-trunks,  and  a 
white  cotton  shirt,  with  sandals  made  of  cowhide.  The  shirt 
is  kept  for  occasions  of  ceremony,  and  is  worn  only  in  town. 
While  on  the  road  they  are  naked  except  for  the  trunks. 

AY  ken  Barrios  issued  his  decree  that  the  peasants  should 
wear  clothing  the  country  narrowly  escaped  a  revolution ;  but 
policemen  were  stationed  on  all  the  roads  leading  into  the 
city,  and  confiscated  all  the  cargoes  borne  by  those  who  did 


ON  THE  ROAD  TO  THE  CAPITAL. 


GUATEMALA. 


95 


not  comply  with  the  regulations  and  put  on  a  shirt  or  a  guijpil. 
The  peons  pleaded  poverty,  when  Barrios,  who  was  as  gen¬ 
erous  as  he  was  tyrannical,  furnished  the  cloth  to  make  the 
garments. 

It  is  a  novel  sight  to  see  a  native  policeman  wearing  a  uni¬ 
form  like  that  worn  by  the  policemen  of  Hew  York— helmet, 
club,  badge,  and  all.  Here  extremes  meet.  Quite  as  signifi¬ 
cant  and  striking  a  contrast  is  often  furnished  in  the  picture 
of  one  of  these  peons,  laden  down  with  his  pannier,  leaning 
for  a  moment’s  rest  upon  a  letter-box  like  those  used  in  the 
United  States,  attached  to  a  telephone-pole;  or  one  of  the 
gayly  dressed  women,  with  a  load  of  vegetables  upon  her 
head,  dodging  a  still  more  gayly  painted  mail -wagon,  the 
exact  counterpart  of  those  used  in  our  postal  service,  except 
that  the  coat  of  arms  of  Guatemala  appears  in  the  place  of 
the  American  eagle. 

Barrios  imported  a  sergeant  of  the  Hew  York  police  force 
two  years  ago,  bought  a  lot  of  uniforms,  and  organized  a 
patrol  system  that  is  remarkably  successful.  He  put  letter¬ 
boxes  on  nearly  every  street-corner,  and  had  the  mail  carried 
to  and  from  the  railroad-station  in  wagons  made  by  the  same 
man  and  after  the  same  pattern  as  those  in  use  in  the  United 
States.  He  introduced  the  letter-carrier  system  also.  It  is 
not  successful,  because  the  natives  object  to  have  their  corre¬ 
spondence  carried  through  the  streets,  preferring  to  send  for 
it  themselves. 

The  military  law  of  Guatemala  requires  the  enrolment  in 
the  militia  of  every  able-bodied  man  between  the  ages  of 
eighteen  and  forty,  and  when  Barrios  issued  his  pronuncia- 
mento  they  were  all  called  out  for  service.  Even  the  hotels 
were  stripped  of  servants,  the  business  houses  of  porters, 
and  all  industries  of  laborers.  Jesus  Maria  was  the  name 
of  a  male  chamber-maid  at  the  Grand  Hotel,  where  all  the 
work  is  done  by  men.  Jesus  was  very  patriotic,  and  made 
many  vows,  he  said,  for  the  success  of  Barrios,  but  he  did 
not  want  to  go  to  war,  and  appealed  to  all  the  boarders  who 
had  influence  with  the  Government  to  secure  him  an  exemp- 


96 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tion-paper.  He  could  say  a  few  words  of  English,  and  ex¬ 
pressed  his  sentiments  concerning  the  pending  struggle  in 
the  words,  “  La  union  much  grande ;  la  guerra  no  good.” 
That  exactly  describes  the  attitude  the  United  States  took 
in  the  contest. 

When  the  conscripts  come  in  from  the  country,  rag-tag  and 
bob-tail,  in  ah  kinds  of  costumes,  and  usuahy  barefooted,  they 
are  sent  to  the  garrison,  where  each  receives  a  uniform  made 
of  white  drilling  from  the  United  States.  About  every  twelfth 
one  bears  across  the  seat  of  his  trousers  or  between  his  shoul¬ 
ders  the  legend,  “Best  Massachusetts  Drillings  XXXX  Mills.” 
This  rather  adds  to  the  beauty  of  the  uniform,  and  there  is 
quite  a  strife  among  the  volunteers  to  secure  trousers  or  blouses 
so  marked.  Each  is  given  a  straw  hat,  a  cartridge-box,  a  gun, 
and  a  blanket,  with  which  they  were  marched  to  the  front  at 
thd  rate  of  five  or  six  hundred  a  day,  while  the  streets  were 
lined  with  tearful  women  giving  parting  words  to  sons,  hus¬ 
bands,  and  sweethearts.  The  Guatemalatacos,  as  the  inhab¬ 
itants  are  called,  are  said  to  be  the  best  fighters  in  Central 
America,  and  were  inspired  with  an  intense  admiration  for 
Barrios,  who  had  never  shown  anything  but  a  fatherly  solici¬ 
tude  for  the  welfare  of  the  common  people.  He  may  have 
been  cruel  to  his  political  enemies,  and  arbitrary  in  his  treat¬ 
ment  of  aspiring  rivals,  but  to  the  masses,  the  poor,  he  was 
always  generous  and  kind.  Much  of  his  strength  came  from 
the  fact  that  he  always  shared  the  shelter  and  food  of  the 
common  soldier.  He  never  took  any  camp  equipage  with 
him,  but  slept  on  the  ground,  and  ate  beans  and  tortillas  (corn- 
cakes),  which  constitute  the  ordinary  soldier's  rations. 

Although  the  hotels  are  clean,  and  have  better  beds  and 
food  than  are  found  elsewhere  in  Spanish  America,  there  is 
one  peculiarity  which  is  decidedly  objectionable — the  bih  of 
fare  is  never  changed.  One  gets  the  same  dinner  and  the 
same  breakfast  every  day.  There  is  enough  and  a  variety  at 
both  tables,  but  there  is  always  the  same  amount  and  the 
same  variety.  First,  at  breakfast,  there  is  always  soup ;  there 
is  an  omelette,  or  eggs  cooked  as  you  want  them ;  next  comes 


GUATEMALA. 


97 


cold  beef  or  mutton  left  from  tlie  previous  day ;  then  beef¬ 
steak,  usually  with  onions  ;  then  beans  and  fritters.  For  din¬ 
ner,  soup  is  first  served ;  second,  rice  with  curry  ;  next,  boiled 
beef  with  cabbage ;  then  turkey  or  chicken ;  then  roast  beef, 
salad,  fruit,  and  cheese  in  order.  All  the  native  food  (beef, 
fowls,  fruit,  and  vegetables)  is  cheap,  but  flour  and  other  im¬ 
ported  products  are  very  expensive.  The  hotel-keepers  are 
usually  Frenchmen  or  Germans.  You  seldom  find  a  native 
keeping  a  hotel,  but  if  you  do,  avoid  it. 

The  people  of  Guatemala  have  a  peculiar  way  of  preparing 
their  coffee  for  the  table.  Every  week  or  so  a  quantity  of  the 
berry  is  ground  and  roasted,  and  hot  water  is  poured  upon  it. 
The  black  liquid  is  allowed  to  drip  through  a  porous  jar,  and 
when  cool  is  bottled  up  and  set  upon  the  table  like  vinegar  or 
Worcestershire  sauce.  Pots  of  hot  water  or  milk,  with  which 
the  coffee-drinker  can  dilute  the  cold,  black  syrup  to  such  a 
weakness  as  he  likes,  are  set  before  him.  This  plan  has  its 
advantages,  but  it  takes  a  long  time  to  become  accustomed 
to  it. 

The  laundry  work  of  the  city  is  never  done  at  home,  but 
always  at  the  public  fountains,  which  are  scattered  over  the 
city,  and  have  basins  of  stone  for  the  purpose.  The  wet  clothes 
are  placed  in  a  basket  and  carried  home  on  the  head  of  the 
laundress  to  be  dried.  Every  morning  and  evening,  Sundays 
included,  there  is  a  long  procession  of  washer- women  going  to 
and  from  these  fountains,  with  baskets  of  soiled  or  wet  gar¬ 
ments  upon  their  heads. 

Sunday  is  observed  in  Guatemala  more  than  in  any  other 
Spanish-American  city.  Usually,  in  all  these  nations,  Sunday 
is  the  great  market-day  of  the  week,  when  all  the  denizens 
of  the  country  dress  in  their  best  suits  to  come  to  town  to 
trade  and  have  a  little  recreation  ;  but  in  Guatemala  there  is 
a  law,  which  is  respected  and  generally  enforced,  requiring 
the  market  and  all  other  places  of  business  to  remain  closed 
on  the  Sabbath.  Sometimes  a  cigar  shop  or  a  saloon  will  be 
found  open,  and  the  hotel  bar-rooms,  or  “  canteens,”  as  they 
are  called,  do  more  business  than  on  any  other  day,  but  there 
7 


98 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


is  no  more  general  business  done  on  Sunday  than  in  the  cities 
of  the  United  States. 

All  the  city  stores  sell  what  is  known  in  the  slang  of 
trade  as  “  general  merchandise that  is,  they  keep  all  sorts  of 
goods.  You  buy  your  canned  fruit  or  sardines  where  you  get 
your  shoes  or  hat,  and  can  fill  an  order  for  every  variety  of 
edible  or  apparel  in  the  same  establishment.  An  exception 
should  be  made  of  drug's,  for  the  apothecary  shops  are  usually 
kept  by  the  physicians,  who  compound  their  own  prescrip¬ 
tions,  and  the  drug-stores  in  Guatemala,  as  in  every  other  city 
of  Central  and  South  America,  are  usually  fine  establishments. 
But  when  you  send  for  a  “  doctor  ”  a  lawyer  comes.  If  you 
are  sick,  always  ask  for  an  apothecary  or  a  physician.  ’When 
you  see  a  man  alluded  to  as  Dr.  Don  So-and-so,  you  may 
know  that  he  is  an  attorney  of  distinction.  The  notaries 
draw  all  legal  documents,  as  in  Europe.  Nobody  ever  asks  a 
lawyer  to  draw  a  contract  or  a  will. 

The  photographers  of  Central  and  South  America  are  al¬ 
most  invariably  from  the  United  States,  and  there  is  usually 
one  in  every  town  of  importance.  The  people  are  vain  of 
their  personal  appearance,  hence  photography  is  a  lucrative 
business.  But  customs  differ.  In  Venezuela,  or  Havana,  or 
the  Argentine  Republic,  if  a  gentleman  possesses  the  photo¬ 
graph  of  a  lady,  he  is  either  a  near  relative  or  is  engaged  to 
marry  her.  Otherwise  her  brother  or  father  has  good  cause 
to  thrash  him,  or  challenge  him  to  fight  a  duel.  If  the  pho¬ 
tographer  sold  the  picture,  or  gave  it  away,  he  is  liable  to  be 
punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment. 

In  Guatemala,  on  the  other  hand,  as  in  Peru,  the  pictures 
of  the  belles  of  the  city,  whether  married  or  maidens,  can  be 
purchased  by  any  one  who  wants  them  at  the  photographers’, 
and  often  at  the  shops,  and  the  rank  and  popularity  of  the 
subject  is  usually  estimated  by  the  number  of  her  portraits  so 
disposed  of.  Codfish  is  a  luxury.  It  is  served  at  fashionable 
dinners  in  the  form  of  a  stew  or  patties,  or  a  salad,  and  is  con¬ 
sidered  a  rare  and  dainty  dish.  They  call  it  hacalao  (pro¬ 
nounced  "  backalowoh  ”),  and  the  shop-windows  contain  hand- 


GUATEMALA. 


99 


somely  illuminated  signs  announcing  that  it  is  for  sale  within. 
It  costs  about  forty  cents  a  pound,  and  is  therefore  used  ex¬ 
clusively  by  the  aristocracy. 

The  railroads  in  Guatemala  are  run  on  the  credit  system. 
Freight  charges  are  seldom  paid  upon  the  delivery  of  the  goods, 
but  merchants  and  others  expect  three  or  four  months’  time, 
and  sometimes  more.  If  a  package  arrives  with  your  address 


100 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


upon  it,  the  railroad  company  is  expected  to  deliver  it  at  your 
residence,  unless  it  happens  to  be  very  bulky,  and  a  few  weeks 
after  a  collector  comes  around  for  the  freight  money. 

The  cars  came  into  Guatemala  for  the  first  time  in  August, 
1884,  and  have  not  yet  ceased  to  be  a  novelty.  There  is  al¬ 
ways  a  large  crowd  of  spectators  at  the  station  upon  the  ar¬ 
rival  and  departure  of  every  train,  and  among  these  are  the 
best  people  of  the  place.  Twice  a  week,  at  train  time,  the 
National  Band  plays  in  the  plaza  fronting  the  station,  to  en¬ 
tertain  the  people  who  are  waiting. 

The  Government  owns  the  telegraph  line,  and  charges  low 
tariffs,  the  cost  being  twenty-five  cents  for  a  message  to  any 
part  of  t  lie  republic.  But  the  cable  rates  are  very  high — 
$1.15  per  word  to  the  United  States,  and  si. 50  per  word  to 
Europe. 

The  literary  people  here  always  spell  general  with  a  “J.” 
Barrios  was  the  “  Jeneral  Presidente,”  but  after  his  pronun- 
ciamento  “  Supremissimo  Jefe  Militar” — Most  Supreme  Mili¬ 
tary  Chief. 

AVhen  a  letter  is  addressed  to  a  person  of  distinction  the 
envelope  reads,  “Exino  y'  Ulustra  Seiior  Don  John  Smith” 
— The  Most  Excellent,  or  Ilis  Excellency,  the  Illustrious  Seiior 
Don,  etc.  One  is  apt  to  feel  very  highly  complimented  when 
he  gets  a  letter  bearing  this  inscription. 

Everybody  is  named  after  some  saint,  usually  the  one  whose 
anniversary  is  nearest  the  hour  of  their  birth,  and  the  saint 
is  expected  to  look  after  them.  AVhen  a  man  comes  here  who 
doesn’t  happen  to  be  christened  after  a  saint,  the  ignorant 
people  express  their  surprise,  and  ask,  “AVho  takes  care  of 
him?  AVho  preserves  him  from  evil?” 

General  Barrios  was  always  dramatic.  Tie  was  dramatic 
in  the  simplicity  and  frugality  of  his  private  life,  as  he  was  in 
the  displays  he  was  constantly  making  for  the  diversion  of 
the  people.  In  striking  contrast  with  the  customs  of  the 
country  where  the  garments  and  the  manners  of  men  are  the 
objects  of  the  most  fastidious  attention,  he  was  careless  in  his 
clothing,  brusque  in  his  manner,  and  frank  in  his  declarations. 


101 


GUATEMALA 


It  is  said  that  the  Spanish  language  was  framed  to  conceal 
thoughts,  hut  Barrios  used  none  of  its  honeyed  phrases,  and 
had  the  candor  of  an  American  frontiersman.  He  was  inca¬ 
pable  of  duplicity,  but  naturally  secretive.  He  had  no  confi¬ 
dants,  made  his  own  plans  without  consulting  any  one,  and 
when  he  was  ready  to  announce  them  he  used  language  that 
could  not  be  misunderstood.  In  disposition  he  was  sympa¬ 
thetic  and  affectionate,  and  when  he  liked  a  man  he  showered 
favors  upon  him ;  when  he  distrusted,  he  was  cold  and  repel¬ 
ling  ;  and  when  he  hated,  his  vengeance  was  swift  and  sure. 


To  be  detected  in  an  intrigue  against  his  life,  or  the  stability 
of  the  Government,  which  was  the  same  thing,  was  death  or 
exile,  and  his  natural  powers  of  perception  seemed  almost 
miraculous.  The  last  time  his  assassination  was  attempted 
he  pa,rdoned  the  men  whose  hands  threw  the  bomb  at  him, 


102 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


but  those  who  hired  them  saved  their  lives  by  flight  from  the 
country.  If  caught,  they  would  have  been  shot  without  trial. 
He  was  the  most  industrious  man  in  Central  America;  slept 


IN'  TIIE  RAINY  SEASON. 


little,  ate  little,  and  never  indulged  in  the  siesta  that  is  as 
much  a  part  of  the  daily  life  of  the  people  as  breakfast  and 
dinner.  He  did  everything  with  a  nervous  impetuosity, 
thought  rapidly,  and  acted  instantly.  The  ambition  of  his 
life  was  to  reunite  the  republics  of  Central  America  in  a  con¬ 
federacy  such  as  existed  a  few  veal’s  after  independence.  The 
benefits  of  such  a  union  are  apparent  to  all  who  understand 
the  political,  geographical,  and  commercial  conditions  of  the 
continent,  and  are  acknowledged  by  the  thinking  men  of  the 
five  States,  but  the  consummation  of  the  plan  is  prevented  by 


GUATEMALA. 


103 


the  selfish  ambition  of  local  leaders.  Each  is  willing  to  join 
the  union  if  he  can  be  Dictator,  but  none  will  permit  a  union 
with  any  other  man  as  chief.  • 

Diplomatic  negotiations  looking  to  a  consolidation  of  the 
five  Central  American  republics  extended  over  a  period  of 
several  years,  but  were  fruitless  because  of  local  jealousies. 
The  leading  politicians  in  the  several  States  feared  they 
would  lose  their  prominence  and  power,  and  distrusted  Bar¬ 
rios,  although  he  assured  them  that  he  was  not  ambitious  to 
be  Dictator.  He  thought  he  was  the  right  man  to  carry 
out  the  plan,  but  as  soon  as  it  was  consummated  he  proposed 
to  retire  and  permit  the  people  to  frame  their  Constitution 
and  elect  their  Executive,  promising  that  he  would  not  be  a 


MAGUEY  PLANT. 


candidate.  As  he  told  me  shortly  after  his  coup-cVetat ,  he 
desired  to  retire  from  public  life  and  reside  in  the  United 
States,  which  he  considered  the  paradise  of  nations.  He  had 


104 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


already  purchased  a  residence  in  New  York,  and  invested 
money  there,  and  was  educating  his  children  with  that  in¬ 
tention. 

Sending  emissaries  into  the  several  States  to  study  public 
sentiment,  he  became  assured  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the 
consummation  of  his  plans.  He  believed  that  the  masses  of 
the  people  were  ready  to  join  in  a  reunion  of  the  republics, 
and  had  the  assurance  of  Zaldivar,  the  President  of  San  Sal¬ 
vador,  and  Bogran,  the  President  of  Honduras,  that  they 
would  consent  to  his  temporary  dictatorship.  He  determined 
upon  a  coujo-d' ctat.  Moral  suasion  had  failed,  so  he  decided  to 
try  force,  with  the  co-operation  of  San  Salvador  and  Hondu¬ 
ras,  which  with  Guatemala  represented  five-sixths  of  the  pop¬ 
ulation  of  Central  America.  He  believed  he  could  persuade 
Nicaragua  and  Costa  Rica  to  accept  a  manifest  destiny  and 
voluntarily  join  the  union. 

Realizing  how  impressionable  the  people  he  governed  were, 
and  knowing  their  love  for  excitement,  he  always  introduced 
his  reforms  in  some  novel  way,  with  a  blast  of  trumpets  and 
a  gorgeous  background. 

The  union  of  Central  America  was  announced  in  the  same 
way,  and  came  upon  the  people  like  a  shock  of  earthquake. 
On  the  evening  of  Sunday,  the  2Sth  of  February,  1S85,  the 
aristocracy  of  Guatemala  were  gathered  as  usual  at  the  Na¬ 
tional  Theatre  to  witness  the  performance  of  “  Boccaccio  ” 
by  a  French  opera  company.  In  the  midst  of  the  play  one 
of  the  most  exciting  situations  was  interrupted  by  the  ap¬ 
pearance  of  a  uniformed  officer  upon  the  stage,  who  mo¬ 
tioned  the  performers  back  from  the  foot -lights,  and  read 
the  proclamation  issued  by  Rufino  Barrios,  the  President  of 
Guatemala,  who  declared  himself  Dictator  and  Supreme  Com¬ 
mander  of  all  Central  America,  and  called  upon  the  citizens 
of  the  five  republics  to  acknowledge  his  authority  and  take 
the  oath  of  allegiance.  The  people  were  accustomed  to  earth¬ 
quakes,  but  no  terrestrial  commotion  ever  created  so  much 
excitement  as  the  eruption  of  this  political  volcano.  The 
•actresses  and  ballet-dancers  fled  in  surprise  to  their  dressing- 


GUATEMALA. 


105 


rooms,  while  the  audience  at  once  organized  into  an  im¬ 
promptu  mass-meeting  to  ratify  the  audacity  of  their  Presi¬ 
dent. 

Pew  eyes  were  closed  that  night  in  Guatemala.  Those 
who  attempted  to  sleep  were  kept  awake  by  the  explosion 
of  fireworks,  the  firing  of  cannon,  the  music  of  bands,  and 
shouts  of  the  populace,  who,  crazy  with  excitement,  thronged 
the  streets,  and  forming  processions  marched  up  and  down 
the  principal  thoroughfares,  rending  the  air  with  shouts  of 
“  Long  live  Dictator  Barrios !”  “  Yive  la  Union !”  A  people 
naturally  enthusiastic,  and  as  inflammable  as  powder,  to  whom 
excitement  was  recreation  and  repose  distress,  suddenly  and 
unexpectedly  confronted  with  the  greatest  sensation  of  their 
lives,  became  almost  insane,  and  turned  the  town  into  a  bed¬ 
lam.  Although  every  one  knew  that  Barrios  aspired  to  re¬ 
store  the  old  Union  of  the  Republic,  no  one  seemed  to  be 
prepared  for  the  coup-d' etat,  and  the  announcement  fell  with 
a  force  that  made  the  whole  country  tremble,  A  ext  morn¬ 
ing,  as  if  by  magic,  the  town  seemed  filled  with  soldiers. 
Where  they  came  from  or  how  they  got  there  so  suddenly 
the  people  did  not  seem  to  comprehend.  And  when  the  doors 
of  great  warehouses  opened  to  disclose  large  supplies  of  am¬ 
munition  and  arms,  the  public  eye  was  distended  with  amaze¬ 
ment.  All  these  preparations  were  made  so  silently  and 
secretly  that  the  surprise  was  complete.  But  for  three  or 
four  years  Barrios  had  been  preparing  for  this  day,  and  his 
plans  were  laid  with  a  success  that  challenged  even  his  own 
admiration.  He  ordered  all  the  soldiers  in  the  republic  to  be 
at  Guatemala  City  on  the  1st  of  March ;  the  commands  were 
given  secretly,  and  the  captain  of  one  company  was  not  aware 
that  another  was  expected.  It  was  not  done  by  the  wand  of 
a  magician,  as  the  superstitious  people  are  given  to  believing, 
but  was  the  result  of  a  long  and  carefully  studied  plan  by 
one  who  was  born  a  dictator,  and  knew  how  to  perform  the 
part. 

But  the  commotion  was  even  greater  in  the  other  repub¬ 
lics  over  which  Barrios  had  assumed  uninvited  control.  The 


106 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


same  night  that  the  official  announcement  was  made,  tele¬ 
grams  were  sent  to  the  Presidents  of  Honduras,  San  Sal¬ 
vador,  Nicaragua,  and  Costa  Rica,  calling  upon  them  to  ac¬ 
knowledge  the  temporary  supremacy  of  Dictator  Barrios, 
and  to  sign  articles  of  confederation  which  should  form  the 
constitution  of  the  Central  American  Union.  Messengers 
had  been  sent  in  advance  bearing  printed  official  copies  of 
the  proclamation,  in  which  the  reasons  for  the  step  were  set 
forth,  and  they  were  told  to  withhold  these  documents  from 
the  Presidents  of  the  neighboring  republics  until  notified  by 
telegram  to  present  them. 

The  President  of  Honduras  accepted  the  dictatorship  with 
great  readiness,  having  been  in  close  conference  with  Barrios 
on  the  subject  previous  to  the  announcement.  The  Presi¬ 
dent  of  San  Salvador,  Dr.  Zaldivar,  who  was  also  aware  of 
the' intentions  of  Barrios,  and  was  expected  to  fall  into  the 
plan  as  readily  as  President  Bogran,  created  some  surprise 
by  asking  time  to  consider.  As  far  as  he  was  personalty  con¬ 
cerned,  he  said,  there  was  nothing  that  would  please  him  more 
than  to  comply  with  the  wishes  of  the  Dictator,  but  he  must 
consult  the  people.  He  promised  to  call  the  Congress  togeth¬ 
er  at  once,  and  after  due  consideration  they  would  take  such 
action  as  they  thought  proper.  Nicaragua  boldly  and  em¬ 
phatically  refused  to  recognize  the  authority  of  Barrios,  and 
rejected  the  plan  of  the  union.  Costa  Rica  replied  in  the  same 
manner.  Her.  President  telegraphed  Barrios  that  she  wanted 
no  union  with  the  other  Central  American  States,  was  satis¬ 
fied  with  her  own  independence,  and  recognized  no  dictator. 
Her  people  would  protect  their  soil  and  defend  their  liberty, 
and  would  appeal  to  the  civilized  world  for  protection  against 
any  unwarranted  attack  upon  her  freedom. 

The  policy  of  Nicaragua  was  governed  by  the  influence 
of  a  firm  of  British  merchants  in  Leon  with  which  President 
Cardenas  has  a  pecuniary  interest,  and  by  whom  his  official 
acts  are  controlled.  The  policy  of  Costa  Rica  was  governed 
by  a  conservative  sentiment  that  has  always  prevailed  in  that 
country,  while  the  influence  of  Mexico  was  felt  throughout 


GUATEMALA. 


107 


the  entire  group  of  nations.  As  soon  as  the  proclamation  of 
Barrios  was  announced  at  the  capital  of  the  latter  republic, 
President  Diaz  ordered  an  army 
into  the  field,  and  telegraphed 
offers  of  assistance  to  Nicaragua, 

San  Salvador,  and  Costa  Kica, 
with  threats  of  violence  to  Hon¬ 
duras  if  she  yielded  submission 
to  Barrios.  Mexico  was  always 
jealous  of  Guatemala.  The  boun¬ 
dary-line  between  the  two  na¬ 
tions  is  unsettled,  and  a  rich 
tract  of  country  is  in  dispute. 

Feeling  a  natural  distrust  of  the  power  below  her,  strength¬ 
ened  by  consolidation  with  the  other  States,  Mexico  was  pre¬ 
pared  to  resist  the  plans  of  Barrios  to  the  last  degree,  and  sent 
him  a  declaration  of  war. 

In  the  mean  time  Barrios  appealed  for  the  approval  of  the 
United  States  and  the  nations  of  Europe.  During  the  brief 
administration  of  President  Garfield  he  visited  Washington, 
and  there  received  assurances  of  encouragement  from  Mr. 
Blaine  in  his  plan  to  reorganize  the  Central  American  Con¬ 
federacy.  Their  personal  interviews  were  followed  by  an  ex¬ 
tended  correspondence,  and  no  one  was  so  fully  informed  of 
the  plans  of  Barrios  as  Mr.  Henry  C.  Hall,  the  United  States 
minister  at  Guatemala. 

Unfortunately  the  cable  to  Europe  and  the  United  States 
was  under  the  control  of  San  Salvador,  landing  at  La  Liber- 
tad,  the  principal  port  of  that  republic.  Here  was  the  great¬ 
est  obstacle  in  the  way  of  Barrios’s  success.  All  his  mes¬ 
sages  to  foreign  governments  were  sent  by  telegraph  over¬ 
land  to  La  Libertad  for  transmission  by  cable  from  that 
place,  but  none  of  them  reached  their  destination.  The  com¬ 
mandant  of  the  port,  under  orders  from  Zaldivar,  seized  the 
office  and  suppressed  the  messages.  Barrios  took  pains  to  in¬ 
form  the  foreign  powers  fully  of  his  plans,  and  the  motives 
which  prompted  them,  and  to  each  he  repeated  the  assurance 


A  NATIVE  SANDAL. 


108 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


that  he  was  not  inspired  by  personal  ambition,  and  would  ac¬ 
cept  only  a  temporary  dictatorship.  As  soon  as  a  constitu¬ 
tional  convention  of  delegates  from  the  several  republics  could 
assemble  he  would  retire,  and  permit  the  choice  of  a  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  consolidated  republics  by  a  popular  election,  be 
himself  under  no  circumstances  to  be  a  candidate.  But  these 
messages  Avere  never  sent.  In  place  of  them  Zaldivar  trans¬ 
mitted  a  series  of  despatches  misrepresenting  the  situation, 
and  appealing  for  protection  against  the  tyranny  of  Barrios. 
Thus  the  Old  World  was  not  informed  of  the  motives  and  in¬ 
tentions  of  the  man  and  the  situation  of  the  republics. 

The  replies  of  foreign  nations  and  the  comments  of  the  press, 
based  upon  the  falsehoods  of  Zaldivar,  had  a  very  depressing 
effect  upon  the  people.  They  were  more  or  less  doctored  be- 
forp  publication,  and  bogus  bulletins  Avere  posted  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  deceiving  the  people.  The  inhabitants  of  San  Salvador 
Avere  led  to  believe  that  naval  fleets  Avere  on  their  way  from 
the  United  States  and  Europe  to  forcibly  prevent  the  consoli¬ 
dation  of  the  republics,  that  an  army  was  on  its  way  from 
Mexico  overland  to  attack  Guatemala  on  the  north,  and  that 
several  transports  loaded  Avitli  troops  had  left  New  Orleans 
for  the  east  coast  of  Nicaragua  and  Honduras. 

The  United  States  Coast  Survey  ship  Ranger,  carrying  four 
small  guns,  happening  to  enter  at  La  Lmion,  Nicaragua,  en¬ 
gaged  in  its  regular  duties,  Avas  magnified  into  a  fleet  of 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  tons ;  and  when  the  people  of  San 
Salvador  and  Nicaragua  Avere  convinced  that  submission  to 
Barrios  Avould  require  them  to  engage  the  combined  forces 
of  Europe  and  the  United  States,  they  rose  in  resistance  and 
supported  Zaldivar  in  his  treachery. 

The  effect  in  Guatemala  Avas  similar,  although  not  so  pro¬ 
nounced.  There  Avas  a  reversion  of  feeling  against  the  Gov¬ 
ernment.  The  moneyed  men,  Avho  in  their  original  enthusi¬ 
asm  tendered  their  funds  to  the  President,  withclreAV  their 
promises;  the  common  people  were  nervous,  and  lost  their 
confidence  in  their  hero ;  while  the  Diplomatic  Corps,  repre¬ 
senting  every  nation  of  importance  on  the  globe,  Avere  in  a 


-GUATEMALA. 


109 


state  of  panic  because  they  received  no  instructions  from 
home.  The  German  and  French  ministers,  like  the  minister 
from  the  United  States,  were  favorable  to  the  plans  of  Bar¬ 
rios  ;  the  Spanish  minister  was  outspoken  in  opposition ;  the 
English  and  Italian  ministers  non  -  committal ;  but  none  of 
them  knew  what  to  say  or  how  to  act  in  the  absence  of  in¬ 
structions.  They  telegraphed  to  their  home  governments  re¬ 
peatedly,  but  could  obtain  no  replies,  and  suspected  that  the 
troubles  might  be  in  San  Salvador.  Mr.  Hall,  the  American 
minister,  transmitted  a  full  description  of  the  situation  every 
evening,  and  begged  for  instructions,  but  did  not  receive  a 
word. 


ORNAMENTAL,  BUT  NOISY. 


The  Government  at  Washington  had  informed  Mr.  Hall  by 
mail  that  its  policy  in  relation  to  the  plan  to  reunite  the  re¬ 
publics  was  one  of  non-interference,  but  advised  that  the 
spirit  of  the  century  was  contrary  to  the  use  of  force  to  ac¬ 
complish  such  an  end ;  and  acting  upon  this  information,  Mr. 
Hall  had  frequent  and  cordial  conferences  with  the  President, 
and  received  from  him  a  promise  that  he  would  not  invade 


110 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


either  of  the  neighboring-  republics  with  an  army  unless  re¬ 
quired  to  do  so.  If  Guatemala  was  invaded  he  would  retali¬ 
ate,  but  otherwise  would  not  cross  the  border.  In  the  mean 
time  the  forces  of  Guatemala,  forty  thousand  strong,  were 
massed  at  the  capital,  the  streets  were  full  of  marching  soldiers, 
and  the  air  was  filled  with  martial  music,  while  Zaldivar  was 
raising  an  army  by  conscription  in  San  Salvador,  and  money 
by  forced  loans.  Ilis  Government  daily  announced  the  ar¬ 
rival  of  so  many  “volunteers”  at  the  capital,  but  the  volun¬ 
teering  was  a  very  transparent  myth.  A  current  anecdote 
was  of  a  conscript  officer  who  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  War 
from  the  Interior :  “  I  send  you  forty  more  volunteers.  Please 
return  me  the  ropes  with  which  their  hands  and  legs  are  tied, 
as  I  shall  need  to  bind  the  quota  from  the  next  town.” 

I;i  the  city  of  San  Salvador  many  of  the  merchants  closed 
their  stores,  and  concealed  themselves  to  avoid  the  payment 
of  forced  loans.  The  Government  called  a  “Junta,”  or  meet¬ 
ing  of  the  wealthy  residents,  each  one  being  personally  noti- 
fied  by  an  officer  that  his  attendance  was  required,  and  there 
the  Secretary  of  War  announced  that  a  million  dollars  for 
the  equipment  of  troops  must  be  raised  instantly.  The  Gov¬ 
ernment,  he  said,  was  assured  of  the  aid  of  foreign  powers  to 
defeat  the  plans  of  Barrios,  but  until  the  armies  and  navies  of 
Europe  and  the  United  States  could  reach  the  coast  the  re¬ 
public  must  protect  itself.  Each  merchant  and  estancianado 
was  assessed  a  certain  amount,  to  make  the  total  required,  anti 
was  required  to  pay  it  into  the  Treasury  within  twenty-four 
hours.  Some  responded  promptly,  others  procrastinated,  and 
a  few  flatly  refused.  The  latter  were  thrust  into  jail,  and  the 
confiscation  of  their  property  threatened  unless  they  paid. 
In  one  or  two  cases  the  threat  was  executed ;  but.  with  cold 
sarcasm,  the  day  after  the  meeting  the  Official  Gazette  an¬ 
nounced  that  the  patriotic  citizens  of  San  Salvador  had  vol¬ 
untarily  come  to  the  assistance  of  the  Government  with 
their  arms  and  means,  and  had  tendered  financial  aid  to  the 
amount  of  one  million  dollars,  the  acceptance  of  which  the 
President  was  now  considering. 


GUATEMALA. 


Ill 


Barrios,  knowing  that  the  army  of  Salvador  would  invade 
Guatemala  and  commence  an  offensive  campaign,  so  as  to  oc¬ 
cupy  the  attention  of  the  people,  ordered  a  detachment  of 
troops  to  the  frontier,  and  decided  to  accompany  them.  The 
evening  before  he  started  there  was  what  is  called  “  a  grand 
funcion  ”  at  the  National  Theatre.  All  of  the  military  bands 
assembled  at  the  capital — a  dozen  or  more — were  consolidated 
for  the  occasion,  and  between  the  acts  performed  a  march 
composed  by  a  local  musician  in  honor  of  the  Union  of  Cen¬ 
tral  America,  and  dedicated  to  General  Barrios.  A  large 
screen  of  sheeting  was  elaborately  painted  with  the  inscrip¬ 
tion, 

“  All  hail  the  Union  of  the  Republic  /” 

“  Long  live  the  Dictator  and  the  Generalissimo ,” 

“  J.  Rufino  Barrios  /” 

This  was  attached  to  heavy  rollers,  to  be  dropped  in  front 
of  the  stage  instead  of  the  regular  curtain  at  the  end  of  the 
second  act  of  the  play,  for  the  purpose  of  creating  a  sensa¬ 
tion  ;  and  a  sensation  it  did  create — an  unexpected  and  fright¬ 
ful  one. 

As  the  orchestra  commenced  to  play  the  new  march  the 
curtain  was  lowered  slowly,  and  the  audience  greeted  it  with 
tremendous  applause,  rising  to  their  feet,  shouting,  and  wav¬ 
ing  their  hats  and  handkerchiefs.  But  through  the  blunder 
of  the  stage  carpenter  the  weights  were  too  heavy  for  the 
cotton  sheeting ;  the  banner  split,  and  the  heavy  rollers  at 
the  bottom  fell  over  into  the  orchestra,  severely  wounding 
several  of  the  musicians.  As  fate  would  have  it,  the  rent  was 
directly  through  the  name  of  Barrios.  The  people,  naturally 
superstitious,  were  horrified,  and  stood  aghast  at  this  omen  of 
disaster.  The  cheering  ceased  instantly,  and  a  dead  silence 
prevailed,  broken  only  by  the  noise  of  the  musicians  under 
the  wreck  struggling  to  recover  their  feet.  A  few  of  the 
more  courageous  friends  of  the  President  attempted  to  revive 
the  applause,  but  met  with  a  miserable  failure.  Strong  men 


112 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


shuddered,  women  fainted,  and  Mrs.  Barrios  left  the  theatre, 
unable  to  control  her  emotion.  The  play  was  suspended ;  the 
audience  departed  to  discuss  the  omen,  and  everybody  agreed 
that  Barrios’s  coup-cVetat  would  fail. 

The  President  left  the  city  at  the  head  of  his  army  for  the 
frontier  of  San  Salvador,  his  wife  accompanying  him  a  few 
miles  on  the  way.  A  few  days  later  a  small  detachment  of 
the  Guatemala  army,  commanded  by  a  son  of  Barrios,  started 
out  on  a  scouting  expedition,  and  were  attacked  by  an  over¬ 
whelming  force  of  Salvadorians.  The  young  captain  was 
killed  by  the  first  volley,  and  his  company  were  stampeded. 
Leaving  his  body  on  the  field,  they  retreated  in  confusion  to 
headquarters.  When  Barrios  heard  of  the  disaster  he  leaped 
upon  his  horse,  called  upon  his  men  to  follow  him,  and  started 
in  pursuit  of  the  men  who  had  killed  his  son.  The  Salvador¬ 
ians,  expecting  to  be  pursued,  lay  in  ambush,  and  the  Dicta¬ 
tor,  while  galloping  down  the  road  at  the  head  of  a  squadron 
of  cavalry,  was  picked  off  by  a  sharp-shooter  and  died  in¬ 
stantly.  II  is  men  took  his  body  and  that  of  his  son,  which 
was  found  by  the  road-side,  and  carried  them  back  to  camp. 
A  courier  was  despatched  to  the  nearest  telegraph  station 
with  a  message  to  the  capital  conveying  the  sad  news.  It 
was  not  unexpected ;  since  the  omen  at  the  theatre,  no  one 
supposed  the  Dictator  would  return  alive.  All  but  himself 
had  lost  confidence,  and  it  transpired  that  even  he  went  to 
the  front  with  a  presentiment  of  disaster,  for  among  his  pa¬ 
pers  was  found  this  peculiar  will,  written  by  himself  a  few 
moments  before  his  departure. 

THE  WILL  OF  BARRIOS. 

“  I  am  in  full  campaign,  and  make  my  declaration  as  a  soldier. 

“  My  legitimate  wife  is  Donna  Francisca  Apaucio  vel  Yecusidario  de  Que- 
zaltenanzo. 

“During  our  marriage  we  have  bad  seven  children,  as  follows:  Elaine, 
Luz.  .Tose,  Maria.  Carlos.  Rufino,  and  Francisca. 

“  Donna  Francisca  is  the  sole  owner  of  all  my  properties  and  interest  what¬ 
soever.  She  will  know  how  much  to  give  our  children  when  they  arrive  at 
maturity,  and  I  have  full  confidence  in  her. 


GUATEMALA. 


113 


“  She  may  give  to  my  nephew,  Luciano  Barrios,  in  two  or  three  instalments, 
$25,000,  for  the  kindness  which  this  nephew  has  rendered  to  me,  and  which  I 
doubt  not  he  will  continue  to  render  to  my  wife  Donna  Francisca. 

“  She  will  continue  to  provide  for  the  education  of  Antonio  Barrios,  who  is 
now  in  the  United  States  of  America. 

“  She  is  empowered  to  demand  and  collect  all  debts  due  to  me  in  this  coun¬ 
try  and  abroad.  The  overseers  and  administrators  of  my  properties,  wher¬ 
ever  they  may  be,  shall  account  only  to  Donna  Francisca  or  the  person  whom 
she  may  name. 

“  It  is  five  o’clock  in  the  morning.  At  this  moment  I  start  forth  to  Jutia- 
pa,  where  the  army  is. 

“J.  RUFINO  BARRIOS. 

“Monday,  March  23,  1885.” 

The  attempt  to  reunite  the  republic  ended  with  the  death 
of  the  Dictator,  and  the  whole  country  was  thrown  into  con¬ 
fusion.  In  Guatemala  City  anarchy  prevailed.  The  enemies 
of  Barrios  did  not  fear  a  dead  lion,  and  kicked  his  body. 
They  came  out  in  force,  stoned  his  house,  and  his  beautiful 
wife  was  forced  to  seek  the  protection  of  the  United  States 
minister,  whose  secretary  escorted  her  to  San  Jose,  where  she 
took  a  steamer  for  San  Francisco,  and  has  since  resided  in 
Uew  York. 

Seiior  Sinibaldi,  the  Vice-president  of  the  republic,  called 
the  Congress  together,  and  a  new  election  was  ordered,  at 
which  Senor  Barrillas,  a  man  of  excellent  ability  and  wise 
discretion,  was  chosen  President  of  the  republic. 

8 


COMAYAGUA. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  HONDURAS. 


In  1540  Cortez,  the  Conqueror  of  Mexico,  directed  Alonzo 
Caceres,  one  of  his  lieutenants,  to  proceed  with  an  army  of 
one  thousand  men  to  the  Province  of  Honduras,  which  had 
been  subdued  by  Alvarado  a  few  years  before,  and  select  a 
suitable  site  for  a  city  midway  between  the  two  oceans.  Ca¬ 
ceres  was  a  pioneer  of  most  excellent  discretion,  and  so  good 
a  judge  of  distance  was  he  that  if  a  straight  line  were  drawn 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  the  centre  would  be  just 
three  miles  north  of  the  plaza  of  Comayagua,  A  modern  en¬ 
gineer,  with  all  the  scientific  appliances  at  his  disposal,  could 
not  have  obeyed  instructions  more  accurately ;  and  as  for  lo¬ 
cation,  there  are  few  finer  sites  in  the  world  than  the  elevated 
plain  upon  which  the  little  capital  of  Honduras  stands.  A 
semicircle  of  mountains  enclose  it,  with  a  wall  of  peaks  six  and 
seven  thousand  feet  high  upon  one  side,  while  upon  the  other 
a  great  plain  stretches  away  nearly  forty  miles,  gradually 
sloping  to  the  eastward.  The  altitude  of  the  city  is  about 
twenty-three  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  and  the  climate  is  a 
perpetual  June,  the  thermometer  seldom  varying  more  than 
twenty  degrees  during  the  entire  year,  and  averaging  about 
75°  Fahrenheit.  The  soil  is  deep,  rich,  and  fertile,  and  the 
productions  of  the  plain  are  tropical ;  but  beyond  the  city,  in 
the  foot-hills  of  the  mountains  and  upon  their  slopes,  corn, 
wheat,  and  other  staples  of  the  temperate  zones  can  be  raised 
in  enormous  quantities  with  a  minimum  of  labor.  The  pine¬ 
apple  and  the  palm  tree  are  growing  within  two  hours’  ride  of 
waving  wheat-fields,  while  orange  and  apple  orchards  stand 
within  sight  of  each  other. 


COMAYAGUA. 


115 


Comayagua  is  said  to  have  at  one  time  contained  nearly 
thirty  thousand  inhabitants,  but  at  present  it  has  no  more 
than  one-fifth  of  that  number ;  for,  like  all  of  the  Central 
American  cities,  its  population  has  been  reduced  since  the  in¬ 
dependence  of  the  country,  and,  like  the  most  of  them,  it  is 
in  a  state  of  decay.  Everything  is  dilapidated,  and  nothing 
is  ever  repaired.  No  sign  of  prosperity  appears  anywhere. 


A  CONSPICUOUS  LANDMARK. 


Commercial  stagnation  has  been  its  normal  condition  for  sixty 
years,  and  the  indolence  and  indifference  of  the  people  has  not 
been  disturbed  for  that  period,  except  by  political  insurrec¬ 
tions.  No  one  seems  to  have  anything  to  do.  The  aristocrats 
swing  lazily  in  their  hammocks,  or  discuss  politics  over  the 
counters  of  the  tiendas ,  or  at  the  club,  while  the  poor  beg  in 
the  streets,  and  manage  to  sustain  life  upon  the  fruits  which 


116 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Nature  lias  so  profligately  showered  upon  them.  Nowhere 
upon  the  earth’s  surface  exist  greater  inducements  to  labor, 
nowhere  can  so  much  be  produced  with  so  little  effort ;  and 


THE  TRAIL  TO  THE  CATITAI,. 


the  vast  resources  of  the  country  present  the  most  tempting 
opportunity  for  capital  and  enterprise,  for  nearly  every  acre 
of  the  land  is  susceptible  to  some  sort  of  profitable  develop¬ 
ment. 


COMAYAGUA. 


117 


The  area  of  Honduras  is  about  the  same  as  that  of  Ohio, 
and  the  inhabitants  number  from  three  to  four  hundred  thou¬ 
sand,  according  to  the  guess  of  the  well  informed,  but  no  cen¬ 
sus  has  been  taken  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  the  last 
enumeration  was  so  inaccurate  as  to  discredit  itself.  In  an¬ 
cient  times  the  population  must  have  been  very  dense. 

It  is  as  difficult  and  as  long  a  journey  to  reach  the  capital 
of  Honduras  from  Hew  York  as  the  capital  of  Siam  or  Sibe¬ 
ria.  One  must  go  by  steamer  to  Truxillo,  the  chief  Atlantic 
port,  or  to  Amapala,  on  the  Bay  of  Fonseca,  on  the  Pacific 
side — a  voyage  of  from  fifteen  to  twenty  days  by  either  route 
— and  then  ride  for  twelve  days  on  mule-hack  over  the  mount¬ 
ains,  without  any  of  the  accommodations  or  comforts  known 
to  modern  travel,  and  not  even  one  clean  or  comfortable  inn. 
When  the  capital  is  reached  there  is  no  hotel  to  stop  at,  and 
one  must  trespass  upon  the  hospitality  of  the  citizens,  or  seek 
some  boarding-place  through  the  aid  of  a  local  merchant  or 
priest. 

The  President  is  General  Bogran,  a  man  who  came  into 
power  by  a  peaceful  revolution  in  1885,  to  succeed  Marco  A. 
Soto,  Avho  fled  that  year  to  San  Francisco,  and  from  there 
sent  his  resignation  to  Congress.  Bogran  is  a  man  of  brains 
and  progressive  ideas,  possessing  more  of  the  modern  spirit 


A  GLIMPSE  OF  THE  INTERIOR. 


113 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  broader  views  than  most  of  his  contemporaries,  and  if  he 
is  permitted  to  carry  out  his  plans  Honduras  will  make  rapid 
speed  in  the  development  of  her  great  natural  resources.  He 
is  offering  tempting  inducements  to  foreign  capital  and  immi¬ 
gration,  has  given  liberal  concessions  to  Americans  who  de¬ 
sire  to  enter  the  country,  and  is  wisely  endeavoring  to  induce 


VIEW  OF  TIIE  CAPITAL. 


some  one  to  construct  the  Interoceanic  Railway,  which  was 
surveyed  fifty  years  ago,  and  twenty-seven  miles  of  which  has 
already  been  built  and  at  intervals  operated.  But  the  discon¬ 
tented  element  in  the  country,  in  league  with  his  predecessor, 
who  now  lives  in  Xew  York,  are  surrounding  him  with  obsta¬ 
cles  and  harassing  him  with  all  sorts  of  embarrassments,  so 
that  his  success  is  made  doubtful.  Bogran  spends  very  little 
of  his  time  at  Comayagua,  and  the  seat  of  government  has 
been  removed  to  Tegucigalpa,  the  largest  town  in  the  coun¬ 
try,  as  well  as  its  commercial  metropolis.  Here  the  Congress 


COMAYAGUA. 


119 


sits  also,  and  the  place  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  the 
capital. 

The  cathedral  of  Comayagua  is  by  far  the  finest  building 
in  the  country,  being  an  excellent  specimen  of  the  semimo- 
resque  style,  which  was  so  popular  among  the  Spanish  prov¬ 
inces.  Its  walls  and  roof  are  of  the  most  solid  masonry,  but 
are  considerably  marred  by  the  revolutions  through  which  the 
country  has  passed,  for  in  nearly  all  of  them  the  cathedral 
has  been  used  as  a  fortress  and  subjected  to  a  shower  of 
lead.  Hear  the  cathedral  stands  a  monument  originally  in¬ 
tended  to  honor  one  of  the  Spanish  kings,  but  after  the  inde¬ 
pendence  of  the  country  was  established  the  royal  symbols 


A  POPULAR  THOROUGHFARE. 


120 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


were  erased  by  the  order  of  one  of  the  Presidents,  the  inscrip 
tion  was  chiselled  off,  and  the  obelisk  now  stands  to  com¬ 
memorate  independence.  This  monument  is  the  place  of  pub¬ 
lic  execution,  and  criminals  sentenced  to  death  are  made  to 
sit  blindfolded  at  its  base,  where  they  are  shot  by  the  soldiers. 


In  November,  1886,  General  Delgrado,  the  leader  of  a  revo¬ 
lution,  with  four  of  his  comrades,  was  executed  here.  It  was 
the  desire  of  President  Bogran  to  spare  Delgrado's  life,  and 
any  pretext  would  have  been  adopted  to  save  him  if  the  honor 
of  the  country  could  have  been  vindicated,  but  he  was  con¬ 
victed  of  treason,  and  sentenced  by  the  courts  to  die.  The 
President  offered  to  pardon  him  if  he  would  take  the  oath  of 
allegiance  and  swear  never  to  engage  in  revolutionary  pro¬ 
ceedings  again ;  but  the  old  soldier  would  not  even  accept  life 
on  these  terms,  and  much  to  the  regret  of  the  President, 


CHURCH  OP  MERCED  AND  INDEPENDENCE  MONUMENT,  COMAYAGUA. 


COMAYAGUA. 


121 


against  whom  he  had  conspired,  and  the  better  portion  of  the 
people,  the  sentence  had  to  be  executed.  On  the  morning  of 
the  day  fixed  by  the  courts,  the  five  men  were  led  from  the 
prison  to  the  Church  of  La  Merced,  where  the  last  rites  were 
administered  to  them,  and  were  then  conducted  to  the  Peace 
Monument,  where  a  file  of  soldiers  was  drawn  up  with  loaded 
rifles.  The  last  word  of  Delgrado  was  a  request  that  he 


EUBBEB  HUNTEBS. 


122 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


might  give  the  command  to  fire,  and  he  did  so  as  coolly  as 
if  he  had  been  on  dress  parade. 

The  residents  of  Comayagua  are  chiefly  the  owners  of 
haciendas  situated  in  the  neighborhood,  or  small  tradesmen, 
with  four  or  five  thousand  lazy  and  worthless  half-breeds,  who 
live  upon  tortillas ,  or  corn-cakes,  and  the  fruits  in  which  the 
country  abounds.  The  most  conspicuous  feature  of  their  life 

is  the  filth  that  sur¬ 
rounds  them,  and 
the  freedom  with 
which  their  pigs  and 
chickens  enjoy  the 
shelter  of  the  dwell¬ 
ing.  A  few  stone 
jars  of  native  make, 
a  few  rude  calabash¬ 
es,  a  couple  of  ham¬ 
mocks,  and  a  few 
broken  articles  of 
furniture,  constitute 
the  equipment  of  a 
peon’s  house.  The 
man  of  the  house 
swings  in  a  ham¬ 
mock  while  his 
spouse  brings  water 
from  the  stream  in 
a  large  stone  jar  upon  her  head,  and  the  pigs  and  chickens 
and  children  he  upon  the  floor  indiscriminately  mixed.  The 
pigs  take  the  tortillas  out  of  the  mouths  of  the  children,  and 
the  compliment  is  returned,  while  the  chickens  forage  upon 
every  article  of  food  within  their  reach. 

Both  cotton  and  silk  grow  upon  trees,  the  vegetable  silk 
being  of  very  fine  and  soft  fibre,  and  frequently  used  by  the 
natives  in  the  manufacture  of  robosas,  serapas,  and  other  arti¬ 
cles  of  wear,  while  the  product  of  the  cotton-tree  is  utilized  in 
a  similar  manner. 


THE  riT.V  PLANT. 


COMAYAGUA. 


123 


HARVESTING  ONE  OP  THE  STAPLES. 


There  is  said  to  be  a  greater  variety  of  medicinal  plants 
in  Honduras  than  in  any  country  on  the  globe,  and  the  bot¬ 
any  of  the  country  contains  nearly  every  tree  and  shrub 
and  flower  that  is  known  to  man.  They  are  all  of  spontane¬ 
ous  growth,  and  might  be  made  a  prolific  source  of  wealth, 
but  are  entirely  neglected.  There  is  one  famous  weed,  called 
by  the  natives  el  agrio ,  which  is  a  certain  cure  for  sunstroke, 
or  for  prostration  from  exposure  to  the  sun  or  over-exertion, 
and  is  used  for  both  men  and  animals.  As  it  is  excessively 
bitter,  the  leaf  of  the  plant  is  wound  about  the  bit  of  the 
bridle  "of  a  sunstruck  horse,  and  the  animal  gradually  sucks 
the  juice  from  it.  The  leaves  are  dried  in  the  shade,  and  a 
tea  made  of  them  by  the  natives  to  cure  sunstroke  and  other 
diseases  of  the  brain  or  blood. 

The  interior  of  the  country  is  beyond  the  reach  of  markets, 
because  of  the  absence  of  transportation  facilities.  In  this  re¬ 
spect  the  people  are  no  further  advanced  than  they  were  two 
hundred  years  ago.  The  only  wagon-roads  in  the  country  are 


124 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


one  built  by  a  party  of  Americans  near  San  Pedro,  in  the 
west,  and  a  few  miles  of  a  national  highway  that  a  century 
ago  was  begun  for  the  purpose  of  connecting  Amapala,  the 
Pacific  port,  with  Tegucigalpa. 


TUB  FLOATING  POPULATION. 


Honduras  has  the  finest  fluvial  system  in  Central  America. 
There  are  few  countries  witli  such  available  water  facilities, 
both  for  transportation  and  manufacturing  powers,  and  it 
has  the  finest  harbors  on  both  coasts  —  all  wasted  because 
of  the  indolence  of  the  people.  The  Government  has  given 
several  liberal  concessions  in  timber  and  agricultural  lands 
to  secure  the  opening  of  its  rivers  to  navigation,  and  for 
the  construction  of  railways  from  the  coast  to  the  interior. 
Some  of  these  grants  are  in  the  hands  of  responsible  and 


COMAYAGUA. 


125 


capable  companies,  and  if  the  peace  of  the  country  is  assured, 
and  immigrants  can  be  induced  to  settle  there,  a  rapid  devel¬ 
opment  of  its  resources  is  promised. 

Ten  years  ago  the  telegraph  was  unknown,  and  there  was 
no  postal  system  in  the  interior.  All  communications  were 
transmitted  from  place  to  place  by  messengers,  who  were 
famous  for  their  endurance  and  swiftness  of  foot.  The  letter 
or  package  to  be  conveyed  was  first  wrapped  in  cloth  and 
then  fastened  around  the  loins  of  the  carrier.  This  system 
is  still  in  vogue  for  the  transmission  of  letters,  packages,  and 
money.  The  couriers,  or  cozeos,  are  noted  for  being  trusty  and 
courageous  ;  they  travel  long  distances  over  the  mountains 
and  through  the  forest,  generally  by  routes  known  only  to 
themselves. 


Within  the  last  eight  years  every  town  of  importance  has 
been  connected  with  the  capital  by  lines  of  telegraph.  Before 
its  construction  information  of  the  utmost  importance  could 
not  reach  the  capital  from  the  remote  points  in  less  than  ten 


126 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


A  MODERN  TOWN. 

or  twelve  days.  The  Government  saw  the  necessity  of  some 
better  and  quicker  method  for  transmitting  information,  and 
constructed  these  lines.  They  are  owned  and  operated  en¬ 
tirely  by  the  Government,  and  from  them  a  considerable  rev¬ 
enue  is  realized.  For  the  purpose  of  sending  a  message,  you 
must  first  purchase  of  the  proper  Government  officer  a  stamped 
telegraphic  blank,  which  varies  in  price  from  one  real  (twelve 
ami  a  half  cents)  to  one  or  two  dollars,  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  words  which  it  is  to  contain.  The  distance  the 
message  is  to  travel  makes  no  difference  in  the  price,  provided 
its  destination  is  within  any  of  the  republics  of  Central  Amer¬ 
ica.  When  the  message  is  written  on  the  blank  it  is  taken  to 
the  telegraph-office,  and  if  the  charge  for  the  number  of  words 
contained  in  the  message  corresponds  with  the  stamped  blank 
it  is  forwarded. 

Every  department  of  Honduras  possesses  more  or  less  min¬ 
eral  wealth,  and  within  the  limits  of  the  country  almost  every 


COMAYAGUA. 


127 


metal  known  to  man  is  found.  The  discoveries  of  gold  and 
silver  were  made  by  the  aborigines,  who  possessed  much  treas¬ 
ure  when  the  Spaniards  conquered  them,  and  ever  since  the 
Conquest  the  mines  have  been  worked  with  great  profit ;  but 
their  development  was  greater  under  the  viceroys  than  since 
the  independence  of  the  republic,  as  this  branch  of  industry 
has  suffered  more  from  civil  wars  than  any  other.  As  a  con- 


UP  THE  RIVER. 


sequence,  mine  after  mine  has  been  abandoned,  and  the  dis¬ 
tricts  where  the  best  mineral  deposits  exist  are  marked  with 
depopulated  towns  and  villages. 

The  lack  of  roads  renders  it  impossible  to  transport  machin¬ 
ery  to  the  mining  districts.  The  mines  are  seldom  worked  to 
any  depth,  and  the  waste  is  enormous.  But  even  under  this 


128 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


system,  rude  and  primitive  as  it  is,  much  wealth  has  been  ac¬ 
quired,  and  millions  of  dollars  in  silver  and  gold  have  been 
taken  out  annually  for  hundreds  of  years.  Of  late  a  good 
deal  of  attention  has  been  given  to  the  Honduras  mines  by 


A  MINING  SETTLEMENT. 


American  experts,  and  much  capital  has  been  invested  in 
purchasing  and  prospecting  them,  but  the  hope  of  realizing 
upon  the  investment  lies  in  the  improvement  of  transpor¬ 
tation  facilities,  for  nothing  that  cannot  be  carried  on  the 
back  of  a  mule  can  either  reach  the  mines  or  come  from 
them.  And  imported  labor  is  quite  as  necessary,  as  the 
native  of  Honduras  cannot  be  induced  to  do  anything  in 
other  than  the  way  to  which  he  has  been  accustomed,  and 
looks  upon  labor-saving  machinery  as  the  invention  of  the 
evil  one. 

The  city  of  Tegucigalpa,  the  commercial  metropolis  and 
the  actual  capital  of  the  country,  stands  upon  both  banks  of 


COMAYAGUA. 


129 


The  houses  in  Tegucigalpa  show  much  more  evidence  of 
prosperity  than  those  of  Comayagua,  and  are  kept  more  tidy 
and  in  better  repair.  They  are  usually  painted  either  a  dead 
white  or  pink,  blue,  yellow,  green,  or  some  other  very  pro¬ 
nounced  color,  while  often  a  native  amateur  artist  tries  his 
9 


the  Rio  Cholutica  in  an  amphitheatre  of  mountains,  and  has 
twelve  thousand  inhabitants.  The  river  is  spanned  and  the 
two  divisions  of  the  town  connected  by  an  ancient  bridge 
with  some  fine  arches  of  stone.  The  suburb  is  called  Co- 
mayaguaita  (Little  Comayagua).  The  streets  are  well  paved, 
in  the  same  manner  as  other  Spanish  American  cities,  with  a 
gutter  in  the  centre,  to  which  they  slope  from  both  sides.  This 
gutter  is  always  full  of  weeds  and  dust  and  filth,  but  seldom 
of  water ;  and  although  the  hills  which  half  surround  the  city 
are  full  of  running  streams,  with  a  fall  sufficient  to  force  water 
to  the  tower  of  the  cathedral,  it  has  never  occurred  to  the 
inhabitants  to  utilize  them.  Every  drop  of  water  used  for 
any  purpose  in  the  city  is  carried,  in  an  earthen  jar  on  the 
top  of  some  woman’s  head,  from  the  river  at  the  bottom  of 
a  gorge  a  hundred  feet  deep. 


VIEW  IN  NICARAGUA. 


130 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


hand  at  exterior  decoration,  and  endeavors  to  make  the  walls 
of  adobe  look  as  if  they  were  made  of  marble. 

Somehow  or  another  Tegucigalpa  always  looks  new.  The 
grass  is  growing  in  the  streets,  and  there  are  many  other  in¬ 
dications  of  commercial  stagnation,  but  the  people  do  not  let 


AX  IXTERIOR  PLAIX. 


their  houses  show  how  poor  and  indolent  they  are.  These 
two  national  characteristics,  moreover,  do  not  appear  in  any 
form  in  the  city.  It  is  not  only  the  present  headquarters  of 
the  Government  and  of  commercial  affairs,  but  it  is  the  cen¬ 
tre  of  fashionable  life  and  the  residence  of  the  aristocracy  of 
Honduras.  Two  -  thirds  of  the  white  people  in  the  republic 


COMAYAGUA. 


131 


live  here,  and  the  other  third  come  here  to  get  their  clothes, 
so  that  the  city  is  by  comparison  gay. 

The  numerous  farms  surrounding  the  city  are  capable  of 
enormous  production,  and  some  of  them  are  still  profitably 
operated,  while  many  have  gone  to  waste.  The  staples  are 
sugar,  coffee,  cocoa,  and  other  tropical  products,  which  require 
and  receive  little  attention.  The  buildings  upon  these  plan¬ 
tations  are  all  very  old,  but  are  still  in  good  condition.  The 
chief  dwelling  is  commonly  large  and  comfortable,  built  of 
adobe  and  roofed  with  imported  tiles,  and  located  where  it 
can  secure  a  good  natural  water  supply.  There  is  usually  but 
one  floor,  no  ceiling,  nor  glass  in  the  windows,  for  the  climate 
does  not  require  it,  and  glass  is  expensive.  The  windows  are 
protected  with  iron  bars  and  heavy  mahogany  shutters.  As 
little  timber  as  possible  is  used,  because  all  dry  wood  is  subject 
to  destruction  from  a  little  insect  called  the  comojeu ,  which 
honey-combs  every  rafter,  joist,  and  beam  in  a  building  as 
soon  as  the  sap  is  exhausted,  and  the  interiors  of  the  houses 
have  to  be  restored  at  intervals  of  a  few  years. 

Most  of  the  churches  are  in  a  dilapidated  condition,  and 
have  been  divested  of  their  former  ornaments  and  riches  by 
the  hands  of  vandals  during  revolutions.  The  cathedral  was 
erected  at  the  expense  of  a  devout  and  wealthy  padre,  and 
was  once  a  fine  building,  but  is  now  in  a  sad  state  of  decay. 

What  will  impress  the  traveller  at  once  in  Tegucigalpa  is 
the  entire  absence  of  carriages.  I  do  not  believe  there  is  one 
in  the  country,  any  more  than  there  is  a  chimney  or  an  over¬ 
coat,  and  for  the  same  reason — the  people  do  not  need  them. 
All  roads,  it  was  said,  lead  to  Rome,  but  no  roads  lead  to 
the  capital  of  Honduras  except  a  few  short  ones,  narrow 
and  stony,  like  the  way  of  salvation,  and  hedged  about  with 
divers  trials  and  pitfalls,  from  the  neighboring  plantations, 
and  are  used  only  by  rude  ox -carts.  Everybody  goes  on 
horseback,  and  all  the  transportation  is  done  on  the  backs  of 
mules  and  men.  Long  caravans  of  pack  animals  are  coming 
and  going  to  and  from  the  sea-coast  daily  over  the  mountain 
trails,  and  there  is  a  class  of  Indians  called  Cargadors  who 


132 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


carry  a  cargo  of  a  hundred  pounds  or  so  upon  their  hacks, 
and  run  at  a  jog-trot  for  hours  at  a  time,  making  the  same 
journey  twice  as  rapidly  as  a  mule.  Their  loads  are  strapped 
to  their  backs  on  a  wicker  frame,  and  by  a  broad  band  pass¬ 
ing  around  the  forehead. 


ONE  OF  THE  BACK  STREETS, 


At  breakfast  chocolate  often  takes  the  place  of  coffee,  and 
it  is  prepared  from  the  cocoa-bean  in  a  manner  different  from 
that  in  use  in  other  countries.  A  handful  or  two  of  cocoa- 
beans,  with  a  few  vanilla-beans  or  sticks  of  cinnamon,  and  a 
much  larger  amount  of  raw  sugar,  are  ground  up  together  by 
the  matete — that  is,  by  being  rubbed  between  two  stones — and 
moistened  untd  it  is  reduced  to  paste ;  then  it  is  rolled  out 
in  little  halls  as  large  as  a  chocolate  cream,  and  allowed  to 
harden.  A  plate  of  these  is  placed  upon  the  table,  each  mem¬ 
ber  of  the  family  takes  as  many  as  he  or  she  chooses,  drops 


COM  A  Y  AG  U  A. 


133 


them  in  a  cup,  and  pours  boiling  milk  upon  them.  They  soon 
dissolve,  and  are  very  palatable. 

The  shops,  or  tiendgs ,  of  Tegucigalpa  display  very  few  goods 
that  are  pretty  or  costly,  and  are  usually  “  general  merchan¬ 
dise  ”  stores,  such  as  are  found  in  the  country  villages  of  the 
United  States — a  few  drugs  and  dry  goods,  a  little  hardware, 
patent-leather  boots  and  elaborately  stitched  kid  shoes  for 
ladies — often  white  or  pink  or  blue,  for  the  ladies  affect  bright- 
colored  foot-gear — some  cutlery  and  crockery,  and  other  house¬ 
hold  articles.  Nearly  all  sales  are  on  credit,  even  if  the  pur¬ 
chaser  have  the  money  in  his  pocket,  for  the  custom  of  the 
country  is  not  to  do  anything  to-day  that  can  be  postponed. 


PLAZA  OF  TEGUCIGALPA. 


The  ladies  usually  do  their  shopping  in  the  morning  before 
breakfast,  which  is  served  at  eleven  o’clock,  for  the  afternoons 
are  given  up  to  siestas.  Most  of  the  business  of  the  city  is 


134 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


MAKING  TORTILLAS. 

done  before  breakfast,  and  from  eleven  o'clock  until  four  in 
the  afternoon  the  streets  are  empty  and  most  of  the  stores 
are  closed.  Activity  is  resumed  at  the  latter  hour,  and  con¬ 
tinues  until  eight  or  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

Every  woman  goes  to  mass  at  seven  in  the  morning,  but 
a  man  is  seldom  seen  to  enter  a  church  except  on  feast-day  or 
to  attend  a  funeral.  All  their  religion  is  crammed  into  Iioly- 
week,  when  they  are  very  pious. 

The  schools  of  the  republic  are  nominally  free,  but  there 
are  few  of  them ;  education  is  compulsory,  but  the  law  is  not 
enforced.  The  school  funds  have  usually  been  stolen,  or  di¬ 
verted  to  other  purposes,  and  only  in  the  cities,  where  public 


COMAYAGUA. 


135 


sentiment  demands  it,  are  schools  sustained.  There  is  a  uni¬ 
versity  at  Tegucigalpa  which  is  said  to  have  been  once  an 
institution  of  some  importance,  but  is  such  no  longer.  It  has 
a  few  students  and  a  small  faculty,  but  those  who  can  afford 
it,  and  who  are  anxious  to  secure  an  education,  go  to  Guate¬ 
mala  or  to  Europe. 

Tegucigalpa  is  famous  for  having  been  the  birthplace  of 
Morazan,  the  Washington  of  Central  America,  and  his  descend¬ 
ants  still  reside  there.  He  was  undoubtedly  the  greatest  man 
any  of  these  republics  ever  produced,  and  had  the  broadest 
vision  as  well  as  the  broadest  views  as  to  the  nature  of  a 
republic.  The  fires  of  liberty  were  enkindled  by  him,  and 


INDIGO  WORKS. 


he  led  the  fight  against  Spain  which  resulted  in  the  over¬ 
throw  of  the  Viceroys  and  the  establishment  of  the  confed¬ 
eracy.  He  was  bom  in  1799;  his  father  was  a  native  of 
Porto  Rico  and  his  mother  a  lady  of  Tegucigalpa.  He  prided 
himself  on  the  fact  that  his  ancestors  came  from  the  birth¬ 
place  of  Napoleon,  and  his  descendants,  to  whom  strangers 
are  usually  introduced,  seldom  fail  to  forget  that  circumstance 


136 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


in  conversation.  Before  Morazan  was  of  age  he  was  prom¬ 
inent  in  Honduras,  and  became  the  governor  of  the  city  in 
1824,  when  lie  was  hut  twenty-five.  For  fourteen  years  there¬ 
after  his  career  was  one  of  singular  activity  and  success,  and 


THE  TLACHIGUEKO. 


COMAYAGUA. 


137 


the  people  of  the  entire  continent  followed  him  with  feelings 
akin  to  idolatry.  He  was  so  far  ahead  of  them  in  ideas  and 
enterprise  that  his  counsels  were  not  followed,  and  he  was 
overthrown  by  a  combination  of  priests,  who  took  up  a  cruel 
Indian  of  Guatemala  named  Rafael  Carera,  and  succeeded  in 
overthrowing  the  power  of  Morazan,  not  only  in  Honduras, 
but  throughout  the  entire  confederacy.  The  patriot  and  lib¬ 
erator  was  afterwards  assassinated  at  Cartago,  Costa  Rica,  by 
men  whom  he  trusted  as  his  friends. 


MANAGUA. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  NICARAGUA. 

A  stranger  landing  at  the  port  of  Corinto,  Nicaragua, 
asked  the  men  who  were  taking  him  ashore  in  a  Ijongoe  the 
name  of  the  capital  of  the  republic.  There  were  three  of 
them.  The  quickest  of  wit  answered  promptly,  “  Grenada 
both  the  others  disputed  it,  one  of  them  contending  for  the 
city  of  Managua,  and  the  other  for  Leon.  So  animated  did 
the  controversy  become  that  all  three  dropped  their  oars,  and 
nearly  upset  the  boat  by  their  gesticulations.  This  question 
is,  and  always  has  been,  a  dangerous  one,  and  thousands  of 
lives  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  money  have  been  wasted 
in  repeated  attempts  to  determine  it.  If  it  were  the  only 
excuse  for  the  blood  that  has  been  shed  in  the  little  republic 
during  the  last  sixty-five  years,  its  history  would  be  a  nobler 
and  a  prouder  one ;  for  bitter  wars  have  been  waged  for 
less,  and  brother  has  fought  brother  to  settle  questions  not 
only  involving  a  preference  for  cities  but  for  men.  There 
is  no  spot  of  equal  area  upon  the  globe  in  which  so  much 
human  blood  has  been  wasted  in  civil  war,  or  so  much  wan¬ 
ton  destruction  committed.  Nature  has  blessed  it  with  won¬ 
derful  resources,  and  a  few  years  of  peace  and  industry  would 
make  the  country  prosperous  beyond  comparison;  but  so 
much  attention  has  been  paid  to  politics  that  little  is  left  for 
anything  else.  Scarcely  a  year  has  passed  without  a  revo¬ 
lution,  and  during  its  sixty -five  years  of  independence  the 
republic  has  known  more  than  five  times  as  many  rulers  as 
it  had  during  the  three  centuries  it  was  under  the  domin- 
ion  of  Spain.  It  was  seldom  a  question  of  principle  or 
policy  that  brought  the  inhabitants  to  war,  but  usually  the 


MANAGUA. 


139 


the  beginning  of  the  century.  There  is,  however,  a  commer¬ 
cial  elasticity,  owing  to  the  extreme  productiveness  of  the 
fields  and  the  ease  with  which  wealth  is  acquired,  that  has 
kept  the  little  republic  from  bankruptcy,  and  promises  great 
prosperity  if  political  order  can  be  preserved. 

Most  of  the  people  live  in  towns,  and  waste  much  time  in 
going  and  coming  between  their  homes  and  the  plantations 
upon  which  they  labor.  This  is  owing  to  the  frequency  of 


intrigue  of  some  ambitious  man.  It  is  a  land  of  volcanic  dis¬ 
turbance,  physical,  moral,  and  political,  and  the  mountains  and 
men  have  between  them  contrived  to  almost  compass  its* 
destruction. 

For  sixty  years  the  country  has  been  going  backward.  Its 
population  is  less  than  when  independence  was  declared,  and 
its  wealth  has  decreased  even  more  rapidly.  Its  cities  are 
heaps  of  ruins,  and  its  commerce  is  not  so  great  as  it  was  at 


VIEW  OF  LAKE  FROM  BEACH  AT  MANAGUA. 


140 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


revolutions  and  the  milder  forms  of  destruction  and  murder 
that  are  practised  by  highwaymen  and  other  robbers.  None 
but  the  very  poor  live  along  the  roadside,  and  they  have  noth¬ 
ing  to  tempt  assault. 


COIUXTO. 


Everybody  rides  on  horseback,  and  the  animals  are  plenty 
and  fine.  The  horses  of  Nicaragua  resemble  those  of  Arabia, 
being  small  but  fleet,  spirited,  and  capable  of  much  endur¬ 
ance.  Great  care  is  taken  in  training  them,  and  they  are 
taught  an  easy  gait,  half  trotting  and  half  pacing,  called  the 
paso-trote.  A  well-broken  animal  will  take  this  as  soon  as 
the  reins  are  loosened,  and  continue  it  all  day  without  fatigue 
to  himself  or  his  rider,  making  five  or  six  miles  an  hour.  The 
motion  is  so  gentle  that  an  experienced  rider  can  carry  a  cup 
of  water  for  miles  in  his  hand  without  spilling  a  drop. 

There  is  only  one  road  in  the  country  suitable  for  carriages, 
and  that  is  seldom  used  except  by  carts.  It  runs  from  Gren¬ 
ada,  the  easternmost  city  of  importance  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Nicaragua,  to  Real  jo,  or  Corinto,  the  principal  seaport ;  and 
over  this  road,  which  was  built  three  hundred  years  ago  by 


MANAGUA. 


141 


the  Spaniards,  all  the  commerce  of  the  country  passes.  There 
is  now  a  railroad  along  this  highway ;  the  Government  has 
several  times  made  loans  to  construct  it,  but  the  money  was 
wasted  in  revolutions,  and  the  track  was  not  completed  till 
recently.  The  road  belongs  to  the  Government,  and  is  man¬ 
aged  by  a  citizen  of  the  United  States.  The  cart  road  passes 
through  Managua,  and  thus  unites  the  three  principal  cities 
of  the  land.  Over  it  have  passed  hundreds  of  armies  and 
no  end  of  insurgent  forces,  and  the  whole  distance  has  been 
washed  with  blood,  shed  in  public  and  private  quarrels. 
Wherever  a  man  has  been  slain  a  rude  cross  is  usually 
erected,  and  it  is  common  to  see  wreaths  of  flowers  hanging 
upon  it,  placed  there  by  some  interested  or,  mayhap,  loving 


(i  1  =  / 

f 

i  1  /wre? 

dj 

U-T 

HIDE-COVERED  CART. 


hand.  At  these  places  pious  passengers  breathe  a  prayer 
for  the  soul  that  has  been  released,  and  they  are  so  numer¬ 
ous  that  it  keeps  them  praying  from  one  end  of  a  journey  to 
the  other. 

The  carts  which  furnish  transportation  are  rude  contriv- 


142 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ances  of  native  manufacture,  and  the  design  has  not  been  im¬ 
proved  upon  since  the  conquest.  The  body  consists  of  a  very 
heavy  framework  of  wood,  and  the  wheels  are  solid  sections 
cut  from  some  large  tree,  usually  of  mahogany.  They  are 
not  sawed,  but  chopped  into  shape,  and  are  generally  about 
eight  or  ten  inches  thick  and  five  feet  in  diameter,  and  weigh 
several  hundred  pounds.  The  oxen  do  not  wear  yokes,  but 
the  pole  of  the  cart  is  fastened  to  a  bar  of  tough  wood,  usually 
lignum  vita?,  which  is  lashed  by  cowhide  thongs  to  the  horns. 
There  are  always  two  pair  of  oxen — one  to  haul  the  cart  and 
the  other  to  haul  the  load,  for  the  vehicle  is  twice  the  weight 
of  its  cargo.  Two  men  are  required  to  navigate  the  craft;  one 
goes  ahead  armed  with  a  gun  or  a  machete,  which  is  a  long 
knife,  and  answers  for  many  purposes — a  weapon  as  well  as 
an  agricultural  implement — and  the  oxen  are  supposed  to  fol¬ 
low  him,  while  the  other  sits  on  the  load  and  yells  as  he  prods 
the  animals  with  an  iron-pointed  goad  long  enough  to  reach 
the  leaders.  The  man  ahead  assists  his  colleague  by  uttering 
constant  admonitions  to  the  oxen  without  turning  his  face, 
and  between  the  two,  and  the  squeaking  of  the  cart-wheels, 
which  are  never  greased,  there  is  noise  enough  to  deafen  the 
whole  neighborhood.  The  approach  of  one  of  these  vehicles 
can  be  anticipated  half  an  hour. 

Each  cart  contains  five  or  six  days’  forage  for  the  animals, 
as  well  as  rations  for  the  carreteros.  They  camp  whenever 
night  overtakes  them,  even  if  it  is  only  a  mile  from  the  end 
of  their  journey.  The  oxen  are  fastened  to  the  cart  and  given 
their  fodder,  while  the  men  light  a  fire,  make  their  coffee, 
and  either  lie  under  the  cart  or  upon  it  to  sleep.  Most  of 
the  carts  have  covers  or  awnings  of  cured  hides,  which  are 
lashed  over  boughs  to  protect  the  loads  in  the  rainy  season. 
The  average  rate  of  speed  is  about  a  mile  an  hour  over  a 
good  road,  but  ten  miles  a  day  is  fast  travelling,  owing  to  the 
amount  of  time  wasted  by  the  roadside. 

The  cartmen  are  invariably  honest  in  dealing  with  their 
employers,  and  always  render  a  strict  account  of  their  car¬ 
goes,  whether  they  are  composed  of  silver  or  coffee,  but  con- 


MANAGUA, 


143 


sider  it  a  privilege,  which  they  have  inherited  from  their 
ancestors,  to  plunder  along  the  road.  Nothing  is  too  hot  or 
too  heavy  for  them  to  carry  away,  and  accordingly  precau¬ 
tions  are  taken  for  the  protection  of  whatever  is  likely  to 


AN  INTERIOR  TOWN. 


tempt  them.  They  have  an  unorganized  union  to  protect 
themselves,  and  permit  no  impositions  to  be  practised  upon 
any  of  their  number,  or  underbidding  or  other  irregularities 
among  themselves.  They  charge  so  much  a  journey,  no  mat¬ 
ter  what  their  load  is,  and  persons  having  small  parcels  to 
be  carried  have  to  club  together  to  make  up  a  cargo,  or  pay 
a  high  rate  for  transportation.  Many  of  the  carts  and  oxen 
are  owned  by  those  who  drive  them,  but  others  are  leased  to 
the  carreteros  by  capitalists  who  possess  a  large  number. 


144 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  cattle  come  from  the  savannas  in  the  south-western  por¬ 
tion  of  the  republic,  where  there  are  immense  and  nutritious 
pastures  extending  over  the  line  into  Costa  Rica. 


THE  INDIGO  PLANT. 


MANAGUA. 


145 


Although  the  mineral  resources  of  the  country  are  undoubt¬ 
edly  rich,  its  future  wealth  will  come,  if  peace  can  ever  be 
made  permanent,  from  the  development  of  the  agricultural 
and  timber  lands.  Beyond  the  mining  district  down  to  the 
Mosquito  coast  there'  extends  a  forest  of  immense  area,  filled 
with  the  finest  woods,  and  it  has  scarcely  been  touched.  The 
most  useful  timber  is  the  mahogany,  although  there  are  kin¬ 
dred  varieties  quite  as  good,  but  not  so  popular  or  well 


known.  It  is  more  easily  obtained  too,  as  it  grows  upon  the 
ridges  and  keeps  out  of  the  swamps,  which  are  full  of  miasma 
and  mosquitoes.  The  tree  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful,  as  well 
as  one  of  the  largest,  that  are  found  in  tropical  lands,  commonly 
reaching  a  height  of  sixty  or  seventy  feet,  and  being  from 
twenty-five  to  forty  feet  in  circumference.  Timbers  forty 
feet  long  and  eight  feet  square  are  frequent,  although  so  heavy 
that  they  are  difficult  to  handle  ;  and  the  only  way  fine  timber 
can  be  obtained  is  by  taking  saw-mills  into  the  forest  and  cut- 
10 


THE  KING  OP  THE  MOSQUITOES. 


146 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ting  up  the  timber  into  sizes  suitable  for  transportation.  This 
is  difficult,  however,  owing  to  the  lack  of  roads.  Logs  five 
and  six  feet  in  diameter  are  common,  and  it  is  said  that  the 
largest  trees  have  the  finest  color  and  grain. 

The  mahogany  is  one  of  the  few  trees  in  the  tropical  for¬ 
ests  whose  leaves  change  color  with  the  season,  and  the  Carrib 
Indians,  who  are  employed  to  cut  them,  discover  their  pres¬ 
ence  by  this  peculiarity.  They  climb  the  highest  tree  they 
can  find,  sight  the  mahoganies,  locate  their  position  with  great 
skill,  and  lead  the  choppers  to  them  with  unerring  accuracy. 
When  the  tree  is  found,  the  underbrush  around  it  and  the  low¬ 
er  limbs  are  first  cleared  away  before  the  trunk  is  attacked. 
When  it  falls,  the  branches  are  chopped  off ;  then  the  log  is 
hewn  into  shape,  after  which  it  is  dragged  by  oxen — some¬ 
times  a  hundred  yoke  being  employed — to  the  nearest  water¬ 
course,  the  choppers  going  ahead  and  clearing  away  with  their 
machetes  the  underbrush  and  small  trees  to  make  a  road. 
'When  the  timber  is  rolled  into  the  river,  it  is  branded  and 
allowed  to  lie  there  until  the  rainy  season,  when  the  waters 
rise  and  carry  it  down  to  the  sea. 

There  are  other  trees  of  great  value  in  the  forests,  and  not 
for  timber  alone.  The  caoutchouc,  or  rubber-tree — a  name 
which  when  properly  pronounced  sounds  like  the  plunge  of  a 
frog  into  the  water — kachunk — is  very  plentiful  in  the  Nicara¬ 
gua  forests,  although  this  resource,  like  most  of  the  others,  is 
comparatively  idle.  The  Mosquito  Indians  gather  some,  how¬ 
ever,  which  is  shipped  from  Blewfields  and  Greytown  in  small 
quantities.  The  quality  is  not  so  good  as  that  which  comes 
from  Brazil,  as  the  sap  is  not  reduced  with  any  skill  or  care. 

The  average  North  American  supposes  that  the  rubber  is 
obtained  like  pitch,  and  comes  from  the  exuded  gums  of  the 
tree,  but  the  process  is  altogether  different,  resembling  our 
method  of  making  maple  sugar.  When  the  sap  begins  to 
rise  from  the  roots  to  the  branches  of  the  tree,  expeditions  of 
thirty  or  forty  men  are  organized,  who  are  furnished  by  the 
exporting  merchants  with  an  outfit  of  buckets,  axes,  machetes, 
pans,  and  provisions,  and  start  into  the  woods.  The  vleros , 


MANAGUA. 


147 


as  the  rubber-men  are  called,  from  the  term  ule,  which  is  the 
native  name  for  the  tree,  are  always  paid  a  small  sum  in  ad¬ 
vance,  ostensibly  for  the  support  of  their  families  during  their 
absence,  but  which  is  always  exhausted  in  debauchery  before 
they  start.  "When  they  reach  the  forest  of  the  ule-trees  they 
build  a  shanty  of  palms  and  brush,  if  there  is  not  one  already 
standing,  on  the  bank  of  some  stream,  as  a  great  deal  of  water 
is  required  for  the  manufacture  of  the  gum.  There  they  dis¬ 
tribute  their  large  cans  and  buckets  through  the  forest  at  con¬ 
venient  intervals  and  proceed  to  business.  When  the  ulero 
selects  his  tree,  he  clears  the  trunk  of  vines  and  creepers  and 
climbs  it  to  the  branches.  Then  he  descends,  cutting  diagonal 
channels  through  the  bark  with  a  single  blow  of  his  machete, 
or  knife,  left  and  right,  left  and  right,  all  meeting  at  the 
angle.  At  the  bottom  of  the  lowest  cut  an  iron  trough  about 
six  inches  long  and  four  inches  wide  is  driven  into  the  tree, 
which  catches  the  milk  as  it  flows  from  the  wound,  and  con¬ 
ducts  it  into  a  bucket  on  the  ground  below.  This  is  done 
with  great  speed  and  skill  by  an  expert ;  and  necessarily  so, 
to  prevent  waste,  as  the  sap  springs  out  instantly,  and  by  the 
time  the  spout  is  driven  into  the  tree  is  flowing  at  the  rate 
of  four  gallons  an  hour.  A  large  tree  will  produce  twenty 
gallons  of  sap,  and  will  run  dry  in  a  single  day.  The  ulero 
having  tapped  a  dozen  or  eighteen  trees  has  all  the  work  he 
can  attend  to  emptying  the  buckets  into  the  ten-gallon  cans 
that  are  provided  for  the  purpose.  In  the  evening  the  cans 
are  carried  to  the  camp,  and  the  sap  strained  through  sieves 
into  barrels.  In  Brazil  it  is  boiled,  but  in  Nicaragua  the 
natives  have  a  peculiar  system  of  reducing  it.  There  is  a 
plant  or  vine  called  the  Achuna,  whose  sap  when  mixed  with 
that  of  the  rubber-tree  has  the  singular  property  of  coagu¬ 
lating  it  in  a  few  minutes.  By  whom,  or  how,  or  where  this 
process  was  discovered  no  one  can  tell.  Undoubtedly  it  was 
an  accident,  for  the  vine  hangs  from  all  the  trees  in  the  ule 
forest,  and  probably  a  cutting  dropped  into  a  bucket  of  sap 
some  time  or  another  produced  the  result  for  which  it  is 
now  used.  Having  their  barrels  full,  the  uleros  cut  short 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


148 


pieces  of  this  vine,  soak  it  in  water,  and  small  bunches  are 
thrown  into  pans  upon  which  the  sap  is  poured.  In  the  morn¬ 
ing  the  rubber  has  turned  to  gum — about  two  pounds  to  every 


A  MAHOGANY  SWAMP. 

gallon  of  sap.  At  the  top  of  the  pan  is  a  quantity  of  dark 
brown  liquid,  like  a  weak  solution  of  licorice.  This  is  poured 
off,  and  then  the  gum  is  rolled  under  heavy  weights  of  wood 


MANAGUA. 


149 


INTERNAL  COMMERCE. 


into  long  flat  strips  called  tortillas,  which  are  hung  over  poles 
under  the  shed  to  drip  and  dry.  At  first  they  are  white, 
like  the  vulcanized  rubber,  but  with  exposure  they  turn  black 
and  become  hard  after  a  few  days.  Then  the  tortillas  are 
stacked  up  under  cover  until  the  end  of  the  season,  and 
shipped  to  market. 

The  cocoa  or  chocolate  tree  grows  wild  in  the  forests  of 
Nicaragua,  and  when  cultivated  yields  the  most  profitable 
crop  that  can  be  produced ;  but  the  republic  furnishes  but  lit¬ 
tle,  comparatively,  for  export,  although  its  possibilities  in  this 
direction  are  almost  unlimited.  The  most  of  the  world’s  sup¬ 
ply  of  cocoa  comes  from  Ecuador  and  Venezuela. 

There  always  has  been  a  prejudice  in  Nicaragua  against 
foreign  immigration,  inspired  and  stimulated  by  the  priests, 
who  inveterately  oppose  all  progress  and  every  innovation. 
A  number  of  German  families  are  settled  throughout  the 
country,  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits.  Most  of  the  large 
commission  houses  and  exporters  are  English,  while  the  hotel 
or  posada  keepers  are  Frenchmen.  England  furnishes  most 
of  the  money  to  move  the  crops,  as  the  natives  are  impover¬ 
ished  by  wars  or  their  own  extravagance.  The  country  will 
never  be  prosperous  until  its  peace  is  assured  and  its  popu¬ 
lation  increased  by  the  introduction  of  foreign  labor  and 
capital. 


150 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Like  other  Spanish-American  countries,  the  national  vices 
are  indolence  and  extravagance.  The  common  people  never 
get  ahead,  and  have  no  need  of  purses,  much  less  of  savings- 
banks.  They  might  make  good  wages,  as  they  are  naturally 
good  producers,  but  they  always  spend  their  earnings  before 
they  receive  them,  and  are  encouraged  to  keep  in  debt  to  those 
who  employ  them,  as,  under  the  law,  no  laborer  can  leave  a 
job  upon  which  he  is  employed  as  long  as  he  owes  his  em¬ 
ployer  a  penny.  This  system  of  credit,  although  it  amounts 
to  only  a  few  dollars  in  each  case,  is  equivalent  to  slavery,  a 


HOW  THE  PEONS  LIVE. 


MANAGUA. 


151 


peonage  which  is  permanent ;  for  if  the  laborer  really  aspires 
to  be  a  free  man,  he  is  persuaded  or  threatened  or  swindled 
into  renewing  the  obligation  under  which  his  life  is  spent. 

The  aristocracy  are  equally  extravagant.  It  is  a  part  of 
their  religion,  apparently,  to  spend  their  incomes,  even  if  they 
do  not  anticipate  them ;  and  the  latter  is  generally  the  case. 
.Nearly  every  crop  is  mortgaged  to  the  commission  man  be¬ 
fore  it  is  harvested,  and  the  planter  is  compelled  to  take  the 
price  that  is  offered.  The  peon  is  in  debt  to  the  planter, 
the  planter  to  the  merchant,  the  merchant  to  the  commis¬ 
sion-house,  and  the  latter  conducts  his  business  on  bor¬ 
rowed  money ;  and  so  it  goes  on,  year  after  year,  without 
cessation,  each  person  involved  spending  as  much  or  more 
than  he  makes,  and  conducting  his  business  on  paper,  like 
speculators  in  the  stock  market,  the  country  growing  poorer 
each  year,  with  no  possible  hope  of  redemption  except  by  an 
influx  of  fresh  blood  and  capital.  The  climate  is  delightful, 
the  land  is  wonderfully  productive,  and  the  products  always 
in  active  demand  in  the  markets  of  the  world. 

The  chief  cities  are  pictures  of  desolation,  and  along  the 
roads  in  the  country  are  the  ruins  of  estancias  that  were  the 
abode  of  wealthy  planters  years  ago.  Much  of  the  destruc¬ 
tion  was  caused  by  earthquakes,  but  more  by  civil  war.  The 
population  in  1846  was  257,000  ;  in  1870  it  had  been  reduced 
to  less  than  200,000,  and  since  then  there  have  been  disturb¬ 
ances  in  which  thousands  of  men  were  slaughtered  or  driven 
into  exile  by  fear  or  force.  The  whites,  or  those  of  pure  Span¬ 
ish  blood,  number  about  30,000 ;  the  negroes  about  half  as 
many ;  the  mixed  races,  Mestizos  and  Ladinos  —  the  former 
of  Spanish  and  Indian  and  the  latter  Negro  and  Indian  blood 
- — are  probably  8,000 ;  and  there  are  supposed  to  be  about  as 
many  pure-blooded  Indians  upon  the  Atlantic  coast  and  scat¬ 
tered  throughout  the  republic.  The  education  of  the  common 
people  is  neglected  and  left  to  the  priests,  who  teach  them 
nothing  but  superstition  and  their  obligations  to  the  Church. 
In  1868  a  decree  was  passed  making  education  compulsory 
and  free,  and  providing  for  the  diversion  of  a  liberal  amount 


152 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


of  the  public  revenue  each  year  for  the  support  of  the  schools ; 
but  the  law  is  a  dead  letter,  and  in  no  year  has  the  amount 
assigned  to  the  Department  of  Education  been  appropriated. 
At  present  there  are  but  sixty  schools,  with  a  normal  attend¬ 
ance  of  twenty-five  hundred,  or  an  average  of  forty  pupils 
to  thirty  thousand  inhabitants.  There  is  a  university  at  Leon, 
with  an  average  of  fifty  students,  and  another  at  Grenada, 


A  FAMILIAR  SCENE. 

with  a  few  more,  at  which  law,  medicine,  and  theology  are 
taught,  under  the  direction  of  the  bishop ;  but  most  of  the 
sons  of  wealthy  families  are  sent  to  Europe  to  be  educated. 

The  city  of  Leon  is  the  commercial  metropolis,  and  was  the 
ancient  capital.  In  1854  the  seat  of  government  was  removed 
to  Grenada,  during  the  great  revolution,  which  lasted  for  five 
years,  and  in  which  our  famous  filibuster,  Walker,  figured ; 


MANAGUA. 


153 


and  the  people  of  the  latter  city  would  not  permit  its  return 
to  the  capital  of  the  viceroys.  After  fighting  over  the  ques¬ 
tion  for  several  years,  shedding  much  blood  and  destroying 
much  property,  a  compromise  was  effected  by  locating  the 
headquarters  temporarily  at  Managua,  a  smaller  place  half 
way  between  the  two,  where,  since  1863,  the  President  has 
resided,  and  the  Congress  has  assembled  every  year.  The 
public  buildings  in  Leon  remain  as  they  were  at  the  time  of 
the  removal  of  the  capital,  and  most  of  the  archives  are 
there,  the  expectations  of  the  citizens  being  that  they  will  be 
needed  for  the  Government  again  in  the  near  future ;  but 
Grenada  keeps  a  threatening  look  in  that  direction,  and  any 
attempt  to  disturb  the  present  situation  would  result  in 
another  war,  so  bitter  is  the  rivalry. 

Leon  is  one  of  the  oldest  cities  in  America,  having  been 


A  COUNTRY  CHAPEL. 


154 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


founded  in  1523  by  Fernandez  Cordova.  Two  years  before, 
Pedrarias  Divilla,  who  was  Governor  at  Panama,  sent  to 
Leon,  on  a  tour  of  exploration,  a  lusty  old  buccaneer,  named 
Gil  Gonzalez,  with  a  few  hundred  men.  lie  landed  at  about 
the  centre  of  the  Pacific  coast,  and  marched  across  to  the 
present  city  of  Divas.  Here  he  found  on  the  borders  of  the 
lake  a  vast  population  of  Indians  under  a  cacique  named 
Nicaro,  and  called  the  country  in  his  reports  Nicaro's  Agua , 
or  waters ;  hence  the  name.  The  Indians  regarded  the  Span¬ 
iards  with  awe  and  amazement.  They  had  heard  of  their 
appearance  at  Panama  and  on  the  Atlantic  coast,  but  believed 
that  the  stories  of  their  presence,  which  came  from  their  an- 


THE  EXITED  STATES  CONSULATE. 


cient  enemies,  the  Carribs,  were  false  and  intended  to  frighten 
them.  Seeing  the  chief  surrounded  by  such  a  multitude  of 
savages,  Gonzalez  approached  with  great  caution,  and  having 
captured  a  native,  sent  him  to  Xicaro  with  this  bombastic 
message : 

“  Tell  your  chief,”  said  Gonzalez,  “  that  a  valiant  captain 
cometh,  commissioned  to  these  parts  by  the  greatest  king 
on  earth,  to  inform  all  the  lords  of  these  lands  that  there  is 
in  the  heavens,  higher  than  the  sun,  one  Lord,  Maker  of  all 


CATHEDRAL  OF  ST.  PETEK,  LEON 


MANAGUA. 


157 


things,  and  that  those  believing  on  Him  shall  at  death  ascend 
to  that  loftiness,  while  disbelievers  shall  descend  into  the 
everlasting  fire  that  burns  in  the  bottomless  pit.  Tell  your 
chief  that  I  am  coming,  and  that  he  must  be  ready  upon  my 
arrival  at  his  camp  to  accept  these  truths  and  be  baptized, 
or  prepare  for  battle.” 

The  cacique  surrendered,  and,  with  all  his  warriors  and 
their  women,  to  the  number  of  nine  thousand,  was  baptized. 
In  his  report  to  the  King  of  Spain,  the  pious  old  Bombastes 
Furioso  claimed  the  credit  of  having  converted  more  hea¬ 
thens  than  any  other  man  that  had  ever  lived. 

In  the  days  of  the  Spaniards  Leon  was  a  splendid  city,  and 
there  are  still  existing  numerous  monuments  of  its  opulence 
and  grandeur.  The  public  buildings  are  constructed  upon  a 
magnificent  scale  and  without  regard  to  cost,  and  the  pri¬ 
vate  dwellings  are  built  in  imitation  of  them,  being  of  im¬ 
posing  exteriors  and  luxurious  in  their  equipment  and  adorn¬ 
ment.  There  were  seventeen  fine  churches  to  a  population 
of  fifty  thousand,  chief  of  which  was  the  Cathedral  of  St. 
Peter,  which  cost  five  millions  of  dollars,  and  was  over  thirty- 
seven  years  in  course  of  erection.  It  was  finished  in  1713, 
and  is  still  in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  being  built  of  most 
substantial  masonry,  with  walls  of  stone  eighteen  or  twenty 
feet  thick.  It  is  of  the  Moorish  style  of  architecture,  resem¬ 
bling  the  great  cathedral  at  Seville,  Spain,  and  is  by  far  the 
largest  and  finest  church  in  Central  America.  During  the 
frequent  revolutions  it  has  always  been  used  as  a  fortress,  and 
its  walls,  although  still  firm  and  enduring,  are  much  battered 
by  the  assaults  that  have  been  made  upon  it. 

In  1823,  during  the  first  revolution  after  independence 
between  the  aristocrats  and  the  Indians,  there  was  a  fire 
at  Leon  which  destroyed  more  than  a  thousand  of  the  finest 
buildings  ;  and  the  flames  were  aided  in  the  work  of  devasta¬ 
tion  by  thousands  of  Indian  soldiers,  who  plundered  and  mur¬ 
dered  the  inhabitants.  This  part  of  the  city  has  never  been 
restored,  and  long  streets,  whose  pavements  are  overgrown 
with  weeds  and  underbrush,  are  still  lined  with  ruined  walls 


158 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


THE  FACIFIC  COAST  OF  NICARAGUA. 

that  disclose  rich  marble  columns  and  artistic  carvings.  In 
mockery  of  the  former  magnificence  "which  their  ancestors 
destroyed,  the  Indian  peons  are  living  in  bamboo  huts,  en¬ 
closed  by  cactus  hedges,  on  the  sites  where  once  lived  the 
proudest  hidalgos  in  Central  America.  There  is  a  tradition 
that  the  town  was  once  cursed  by  the  Pope,  because  of  the 
murder  of  an  archbishop  there,  and  this  accounts  for  the  suc¬ 
cession  of  calamities  from  which  it  has  suffered. 

The  ladies  of  the  aristocracy  are  in  youth  usually  pretty, 
and  at  whatever  age  are  always  proud.  For  some  reason 
or  other  they  consider  their  country  far  above  and  beyond 
criticism,  ancl  themselves  superior  to  the  rest  of  Adam’s  race. 
Ancestral  pride  is  so  conspicuous  as  to  be  ofttimes  offensive, 
and  the  fact  that  a  person  born  out  of  Nicaragua  seems  to 
them  to  have  been  a  misfortune  for  which  no  other  circum- 


MANAGUA. 


159 


stances  can  compensate.  This  is  true  among  both  sexes  of 
the  upper  caste,  but  more  especially  among  the  ladies,  whose 
exalted  opinion  of  their  own  importance  in  the  universe  has 
never  been  tarnished 
by  travel.  This  feel¬ 
ing  has  gone  far  to  ex¬ 
cite  the  existing  preju¬ 
dice  against  foreigners, 
and  while  the  tourists 
are  always  most  hos¬ 
pitably  received,  the 
fact  that  their  stay  is 
only  temporary  adds 
to  the  pleasure  of  en¬ 
tertaining  them.  The 
most  rigid  restrictions 
prevent  the  social  in¬ 
tercourse  of  the  sexes, 
and  nowhere  in  the 
world  is  a  woman’s 
honor  protected  with 
such  great  precaution ; 
and  for  excellent  rea¬ 
sons.  No  lady  of  caste 
would  think  of  receiv¬ 
ing  a  call  from  a  gen¬ 
tleman  alone,  except  a 
priest ;  and  the  clergy 
make  the  most  of  their 
privileges,  according  to 
common  report. 

The  ladies  are  al-'  antics  on  the  bkidge. 

ways  idle.  To  do  any 

sort  of  work  other  than  embroidery  is  beneath  them,  and  the 
number  of  servants  they  employ  is  regulated  not  by  their  ne¬ 
cessities  but  by  their  means.  They  are  all  uneducated,  the 
privilege  of  a  few  years  in  a  convent  only  being  allowed 


160 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


them ;  and  those  are  spent  in  learning  the  lives  of  the  saints, 
a  little  embroidery,  to  drum  on  the  piano,  and  to  dance. 
There  is  no  distinctive  national  costume.  The  aristocracy 
imitate  the  Parisian  fashions,  while  the  common  masses  wear 
whatever  they  can  get.  The  Nicaraguans  are  much  more 
social  in  disposition  than  the  citizens  of  the  other  Central 
American  countries.  They  have  tertulias ,  which  is  a  near 
relation  of  a  “high  tea,”  and  balls  more  frequently,  and 
are  much  more  given  to  dinner-parties,  at  which  one  of 
the  greatest  of  imported  luxuries  is  codfish. 

The  great  annual  holiday  of  the  people  is  known  as  El 
Paseo  at  Mar ,  (the  Excursion  to  the  Sea),  but  is  often  alluded 
to  as  the  festival  of  St.  Y enus,  because  of  the  excesses  that 
are  committed  there  by  the  people,  who  are  most  discreet 
whom  at  home.  But  as  nobody  cares  what  occurs  at  the 
carnivals  at  Borne,  so  can  a  party  of  fashionable  Nicaraguans 
be  allowed  liberties  at  their  watering-places.  In  the  latter 
part  of  March,  when  the  dry  season  is  far  advanced  and 
everything  is  buried  in  dust,  after  the  harvests  are  gathered 
and  the  crops  are  sold  and  carried  to  Corinto,  the  seaport, 
everybody  feels  like  taking  a  little  relaxation.  Preparations 
are  made  long  in  advance,  but  as  soon  as  the  March  moon 
comes  carts  are  packed  with  a  little  furniture  and  a  good 
many  trunks,  and  the  exodus  begins.  It  is  only  about  fifteen 
miles  to  the  beach,  but  the  journey  occasions  as  much  plan¬ 
ning  and  preparation,  and  is  anticipated  with  as  much  pleas¬ 
ure,  as  a  tour  through  Europe.  Everybody  goes,  the  peon 
as  well  as  the  hidalgo,  and  for  two  weeks  during  the  full 
moon  the  city  is  deserted.  There  are  no  hotels,  but  each 
family  takes  a  tent  or  builds  a  hut  of  bamboo,  and  lives 
d  neglige  under  the  shade  of  the  forest  trees,  which  extend 
almost  to  the  ocean.  The  Government  sends  down  a  battal¬ 
ion  of  troops,  ostensibly  to  keep  order  and  do  police  duty,  but 
really  as  an  excuse  for  giving  the  officers  and  soldiers  a  holi¬ 
day.  Social  laws  are  very  much  relaxed  during  the  Paseo, 
and  it  is  really  the  only  time  when  lovers  can  do  their 
billing  and  cooing  without  the  interfering  presence  of  a 


MANAGUA. 


161 


1ST  THE  UPPEB  ZONE. 


duenna.  Flirtations  are  the  order  of  the  day,  and  Cupid  is 
king. 

There  are  no  bathing -houses,  and  no  bathing-dresses  are 
worn.  The  people  go  into  the  surf  as  Nature  equipped 
them — the  women  and  the  girls  on  one  side  of  a  long  spit  of 
land  that  reaches  into  the  sea,  and  the  men  and  boys  on  the 
other.  This  annual  Paseo  is  the  perpetuation  of  a  semi-relig¬ 
ious  Indian  custom. 

Another  peculiar  Nicaraguan  religious  custom  is  the  bap¬ 
tism  of  the  volcanoes,  a  ceremony  which  is  believed  by  the 
superstitious  to  be  very  effective  in  keeping  them  in  subjec¬ 
tion  and  making  them  observe  the  proprieties  of  life.  This 
observance  is  said  to  be  as  old  as  the  Conquest,  having  orig- 
11 


162 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


mated  after  the  first  eruption  succeeding  the  invasion  of 
Nicaragua  by  the  Spaniards,  and  is  repeated  on  the  anniver¬ 
sary  of  the  last  disturbance  caused  by  each  particular  volca¬ 
no.  The  priests  of  the  nearest  city  take  the  affair  in  charge, 
and,  followed  by  a  large  company  of  the  faithful,  ascend  to 
the  crater,  and  with  great  ceremony  sprinkle  holy  water  into 
it.  Each  of  the  volcanic  peaks  in  Nicaragua  has  been  repeat¬ 
edly  sanctified  in  this  way  except  Momotombo,  the  grandest 
but  most  unregenerate  of  them  all,  who  has  never  permitted 
a  human  foot  to  reach  his  summit  or  a  human  eye  to  look 
into  his  crater.  Two  hundred  years  ago,  after  old  Tombo,  as 
the  master  is  familiarly  called,  had  been  acting  very  badly, 
three  brave  monks  determined  to  try  the  effect  of  holy  water 
upon  him,  and  started  for  the  summit  with  a  large  cross 
which  they  proposed  to  erect  there;  but  they  were  never 
heard  of  again,  and  the  people  look  upon  the  mountain  with 
greater  reverence. 


VOLCANOES  OF  AXUSCO  AND  MOMOTOMBO,  FROM  THE  CATHEDRAE. 


MANAGUA. 


163 


From  the  tower  of  St.  Peter’s  Cathedral  in  the  city  of  Leon 
thirteen  volcanoes  can  be  seen,  several  of  which  are  active. 
There  are  eighteen  standing  in  a  solemn  procession  around 
the  lakes  of  Nicaragua  and  Managua.  They  are  not  so  high 
as  certain  peaks  in  Gautemala  or  Costa  Rica,  but  look  higher 
from  the  fact  that  they  rise  immediately  from  the  level  of 
tide-water,  and  can  be  seen  from  the  sea  in  their  full  grand¬ 
eur,  old  Tombo  looking  to  be  about  the  height  of  Pike’s 
Peak  as  seen  from  Colorado  Springs.  This  gigantic  mount¬ 
ain  rises  boldly  out  of  the  waters  of  Lake  Nicaragua,  its  bare 


VOLCANO  OF  COSEQUINA,  FROM  THE  SEA. 

and  blackened  summit,  which  has  forbidden  all  attempts  to 
scale  its  sides,  being  always  crowned  with  a  light  wreath 
of  smoke,  attesting  the  perpetual  existence  of  the  internal 
fires  which  now  and  then  break  forth  and  cover  its  sides  with 
burning  floods.  At  its  base  are  several  hot  sulphur  springs, 
and  at  frequent  intervals  heavy  rumbling  sounds  can  be 
heard  from  within  its  walls.  In  the  middle  of  the  lake,  only 
a  few  miles  away,  is  an  exact  duplicate  of  the  mountain ;  in 
miniature,  however,  being  but  one -fourth  its  size.  This  is 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


164 


LA  UNION  AND  VOLCANO  OF  CONC1IAGUA. 


called  Momotombita,  the  three  last  letters  expressing  the  di¬ 
minutive.  It  forms  an  island,  from  which  its  peak  rises  a 
perfect  cone.  Its  crater  has  been  extinct  for  hundreds  of 
years ;  but  the  island  was  a  sacred  place  to  the  aborigines. 
In  the  forests  which  now  cover  it  are  the  ruins  of  vast  tem¬ 
ples  and  gigantic  idols  hewn  out  of  the  solid  rock.  The  last 
serious  earthquake,  in  1S67,  occurred  without  much  damage 
to  the  city,  whose  walls  have  been  several  times  shaken  down 
in  the  three  centuries  and  a  half  since  it  was  founded. 

The  most  fearful  eruption  on  record  in  Nicaragua,  and  one 
of  the  most  serious  the  world  ever  saw,  was  that  of  the  vol¬ 
cano  Cosequina,  near  Grenada,  in  1S35.  It  continued  for  four 
days,  and  covered  the  country  for  hundreds  of  miles  around 
with  ashes  and  lava,  causing  a  panic  from  which  the  people 
did  not  recover  for  many  years,  and  resulting  in  great  de¬ 
struction  of  life  and  property.  The  explosions  were  of  such 
force  that  ashes  fell  in  the  city  of  Bogota,  Colombia,  fifteen 


MANAGUA. 


165 


hundred  miles  away  in  a  direct  line,  and  at  an  altitude  eleven 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  Ashes  fell  in  the  West  India 
Islands,  also  far  in  the  interior  of  Mexico,  and  showers  of  them 
that  obscured  the  sun  caused  great  consternation  in  Guate¬ 
mala  and  the  neighboring  republics,  while  the  people  in  Nica¬ 
ragua  thought  the  end  of  the  world  had  come.  Vessels  sail¬ 
ing  in  the  Pacific  had  their  decks  covered  with  lava  and  ashes, 
and  several  sailors  were  injured  by  falling  stones ;  while  the 
ocean  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  miles  was  so  strewn  with  float¬ 
ing  ashes  and  pumice-stone  that  the  surface  of  the  water  was 
concealed.  The  anniversary  of  this  horrible  catastrophe  is 
always  observed  by  the  people  as  a  great  fast-day,  business 
being  suspended  throughout  the  whole  republic,  and  the  peo¬ 
ple  gathering  in  the  churches  to  pray  for  deliverance  from 
further  eruptions.  Since  that  date  the  volcano  has  continued 
active,  but  has  caused  no  damage. 

A  great  part  of  the  surface  of  the  country  is  covered  with 
beds  of  lava  and  scoria,  lakes  of  bitter  water  that  have  no 
bottom,  yawning  craters  surrounded  with  blistered  rocks,  and 
pits  from  which  sulphurous  vapors  are  constantly  rising  that 
the  people  appropriately  call  infernillos. 

The  city  of  Grenada  stands  at  the  eastern  end  of  the  inhab¬ 
ited  valley  of  Nicara¬ 
gua,  as  Leon  does  at  the 
western  end,  the  two  ri¬ 
val  cities  being  about 
seventy  miles  apart.  Un¬ 
til  its  almost  total  de¬ 
struction  by  Walker  and 
his  filibusters  in  1857,  it 
was  a  beautiful  town, 
filled  with  fine  man¬ 
sions,  and  proud  of  its 
appearance.  The  popu¬ 
lation  was  reduced  dur¬ 
ing  the  civil  war,  in 
which  the  American  adventurers  played  so  conspicuous  a 


THE  FATE  OF  FILIBUSTERS. 


166 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


part,  from  thirty-five  thousand  to  fifteen  thousand;  and  al¬ 
though  that  was  nearly  thirty  years  ago  it  has  scarcely  be¬ 
gun  to  recover.  Grenada  was  the  seat  of  the  “  aristocratic  ” 
government  which  Walker  and  his  allied  Nicaraguans  over¬ 
threw,  and  was  besieged  for  two  years,  during  which  time 
the  inhabitants  endured  not  only  great  hardships,  many  dying 
of  starvation  and  epidemics  which  broke  out  among  them, 
but  suffered  the  destruction  of  almost  their  entire  property. 
During  the  days  of  Spanish  dominion  it  was  one  of  the  most 
wealthy  and  prosperous  cities  in  Central  America,  and  its  com¬ 
merce  was  enormous.  The  old  chronicles  relate  that  nearly 
every  day  caravans  of  eighteen  hundred  mules  laden  with 
bullion  and  merchandise  arrived  from  the  surround iny  coun- 

o 

try,  and  carried  away  European  goods  in  exchange. 

Ope  of  the  largest  monasteries  on  the  continent  was  situ¬ 
ated  here,  erected  and  occupied  by  the  Franciscan  Friars,  who 
owned  extensive  estates  in  the  surrounding  country,  and  con¬ 
tinued  to  acquire  great  wealth  until  they  were  expelled  and 
their  property  confiscated  in  1S29.  It  is  still  standing  in  a 
good  state  of  preservation. 

The  actual  capital  of  Nicaragua,  the  city  of  Managua,  sits 
on  the  southern  shore  of  the  lake  of  the  same  name,  about 
sixty  miles  from  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  is  reached  by  an 
overland  journey  of  three  days  from  Leon,  which  is  connect¬ 
ed  with  Corinto,  the  chief  seaport,  by  a  railroad.  The  popu¬ 
lation  of  Managua  is  about  eight  or  ten  thousand,  at  a  guess, 
for  no  census  has  been  taken  since  1870.  It  has  increased 
since  that  date,  when  the  inhabitants  numbered  six  thousand 
seven  hundred.  The  rich  residents  are  mostly  planters  who 
have  estancias  in  the  neighborhood,  and  live  in  houses  of  one 
or  two  stories  without  any  pretension  to  architectural  beauty 
or  elegance.  They  are  more  modern  in  construction  than 
those  of  Leon  and  Grenada,  for  it  is  only  since  the  seat  of 
government  was  located  at  Managua  that  it  has  been  of  any 
commercial  or  political  importance.  A  large  portion  of  the 
standing  army  of  the  republic,  consisting  of  two  thousand 
men.  is  stationed  at  Managua,  occupying  an  old  monastery 


MANAGUA. 


167 


as  a  barracks,  and  the  streets  are  always  crowded  with  mili¬ 
tary  men  in  resplendent  uniforms.  There  are  about  three 
officers  to  every  ten  privates  in  the  army,  and  positions  in  the 
military  service  are  actively  sought  by  the  sons  of  the  aristo¬ 
cratic  families,  who  prefer  them  to  professional  or  commercial 
careers.  The  privates  are  exclusively  Indians  or  half-breed 
peons,  who  wear  a  uniform  of  dirty  white  cotton  drilling  with 
a  blue  cap.  They  are  supposed  to  be  voluntarily  enlisted,  but 
when  troops  are  needed  they  are  secured  by  sending  squads 
of  impressarios  into  the  country,  who  seize  as  many  peons  as 
they  want,  bring  them,  bound  with  ropes,  to  the  capital,  and 
then  compel  them  to  sign  the  enlistment  rolls. 

The  National  Palace  is  a  low,  square  edifice,  with  balconies 
of  the  ordinary  Spanish  styles,  and  was  formerly  the  home  of 
one  of  the  religious  orders.  The  only  handsome  rooms  are 
the  headquarters  of  the  President  and  the  chambers  in  which 
the  two  Houses  of  Congress  meet  annually.  They  are  fitted 
up  with  fine  imported  furniture,  and  the  walls  are  covered  with 
portraits  of  men  distinguished  in  the  history  of  the  republic. 


A  FARMING  SETTLEMENT. 


168 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  peons  live  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  in  huts  of  bam¬ 
boo  thatched  with  palm-leaves  and  straw,  surrounded  with 
curious-looking  fences  or  hedges  of  cactus.  They  are  appar¬ 
ently  very  poor,  and  are  surrounded  with  filth  and  squalor ; 
but  the  real,  which  is  worth  twelve  and  a  half  cents,  will  sus¬ 
tain  a  whole  family  for  a  week,  for  they  need  little  more  than 
nature  has  supplied  them  with — the  plantains  and  yams  that 
grow  profusely  in  their  little  gardens.  They  seldom  eat  meat, 
and  never  wash  themselves.  They  appear  to  be  perfectly 


happy,  and  sit  at  the 
doors  of  their  huts, 
women  and  men,  both 
nearly  naked,  smok¬ 
ing  cigarettes,  and 
chatting  as  content¬ 
edly  as  if  all  their 
wants  in  life  were 
fully  supplied.  Dense¬ 
ly  ignorant  and  su¬ 
perstitious,  they  know 
nothing  of  the  world 
beyond  their  own  sur¬ 
roundings,  and  care 
less. 


The  environs  of 
Managua  are  very 
picturesque.  On  one 
side  is  the  beautiful 
lake,  sixty  miles  long 


THE  QUESAL. 


and  thirty  miles  wide,  surrounded  by  volcanoes,  and  on  the 
other  are  fertile  slopes,  on  which  are  coffee  plantations  and 
cocoa  groves,  both  yielding  prodigious  crops.  The  peons  ol 
the  city  work  upon  the  estancias  when  there  is  anjdhing  to 
be  done,  travelling  five  or  six  miles  each  day  in  going  to  and 
returning  from  the  scene  of  their  labor.  The  country  about 
Managua  must  have  been  densely  populated  by  the  aborig¬ 
ines,  and  is  full  of  most  curious  and  puzzling  relics  of  a  pre- 


MANAGUA. 


169 


historic  race,  which  the  natives  regard  with  great  veneration. 
The  geologist,  as  well  as  the  ethnologist  and  antiquarian, 
finds  here  one  of  the  most  abundant  fields  for  investigation, 
which  was  explored  and  described  by  Stephens,  Squier,  and 
many  earlier  writers. 

The  Government  consists  of  a  President,  who  receives  a 
salary  of  two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars,  and  is  elected 
for  four  years,  during  which  time,  if  he  is  not  overpowered 
by  some  political  rival,  he  usually  manages  to  amass  an  im¬ 
mense  fortune.  A  common  argument  in  favor  of  re-electing 
presidents  is  that  they  are  able  to  steal  all  they  want  during 
their  first  term.  There  are  two  Vice-Presidents,  generally  the 
President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  Lower  House, 
and  either  of  them  may  be  designated  to  perform  the  duties 
of  the  Executive  when  he  so  elects.  There  is  a  cabinet,  or 
council,  of  four  ministers.  One  has  the  finances  in  charge ; 
another  foreign  affairs,  agriculture,  and  commerce;  a  third 
military  affairs  and  public  works ;  and  a  fourth  justice,  public 
instruction,  and  ecclesiastical  affairs. 

The  Senate  is  composed  of  fourteen  members,  two  from 
each  of  the  Departments,  or  Provinces,  elected  for  four  years ; 
and  the  House  of  Deputies  of  twenty-four  members,  or  one 
for  each  ten  thousand  of  population,  elected  for  two  years. 
They  are  paid  one  dollar  and  fifty  cents  per  diem  during  the 
sessions  of  Congress.  No  Senator  or  Deputy  can  be  elected 
more  than  two  consecutive  terms,  and  no  official  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  or  member  of  Congress  can  be  a  candidate  for  elec¬ 
tion  or  appointment  to  any  other  office  during  his  constitu¬ 
tional  term  of  service.  Ecclesiastics  are  ineligible  for  civil 
positions,  and  all  candidates  for  every  post  of  honor  under 
the  Government  must  have  proper  qualifications;  while  all 
persons  accepting  pensions  from  the  Government,  and  per¬ 
forming  the  duty  of  house  or  body  servants,  are  denied  the 
right  of  suffrage  or  of  holding  office.  There  are  three  courts, 
State  or  Department  judges  being  elected  by  the  people,  Dis¬ 
trict  Federal  judges  and  members  of  the  Supreme  Court  being 
appointed  by  the  House  of  Representatives  and  confirmed  by 


170 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  Senate,  to  serve  during  life  unless  impeached  and  convicted 
by  the  Deputies  before  the  Senate  for  malfeasance  in  office. 
It  requires  a  two-thirds  vote  in  the  House  to  enact  legislation, 
but  only  a  majority  vote  in  the  Senate.  The  President  has 
the  power  of  issuing  decrees  during  the  recess  of  Congress, 
which  decrees  have  the  force  of  law,  but  must  be  affirmed  or 
reversed  by  Congress  at  its  next  session. 

Since  the  charter  of  the  Interoceanic  Canal  Company  by 
the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  and  the  actual  commence¬ 
ment  of  work  upon  the  long-projected  enterprise,  under  the 
direction  of  Chief-engineer  Menocal,  the  republic  of  Nicara¬ 
gua  assumes  a  position  of  more  prominence  among  nations, 
and  of  greater  interest  to  the  public  at  large,  than  it  has  ever 
had  Jiefore.  The  failure  of  the  Panama  Canal  Company,  and 
the  apparent  impossibility  of  piercing  the  Isthmus  at  its  nar¬ 
rowest  part,  has  also  given  the  Nicaragua  Company  increased 
importance,  but  Mr.  Menocal  and  the  company  of  capitalists 
who  stand  behind  him  feel  no  doubt  of  ultimate  success. 


SAN  SALVADOR 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  SAN  SALVADOR. 


Whoever  visits  the  little  republic  of  San  Salvador,  and 
lands  at  La  Libertad,  its  principal  seaport,  must  expect  to  un¬ 
dergo  a  novel  and  alarming  experience.  There  is  no  harbor 
in  the  country,  although  it  has  one  hundred  and  fifty-seven 
miles  of  sea-coast.  The  shore  of  the  Pacific  is  a  line  of  bluffs, 
with  a  fringe  of  beach  at  the  bottom,  and  upon  the  sand  a 
mighty  surf  is  always  beating.  Ships  anchor  several  miles 
off  the  coast,  to  avoid  being  driven  ashore  by  the  winds  that 
sometimes  rise  very  suddenly,  and  no  boat  can  survive  the 
breakers.  An  iron  pier,  or  mole,  twice  as  long  and  twice  as 
high  as  the  famous  pier  at  Coney  Island,  extends  from  the 
bluff  for  three-quarters  of  a  mile  into  the  sea.  A  tramway 
runs  from  the  town  of  La  Libertad,  connecting  its  monster 
warehouses  with  the  pier,  and  cars  loaded  with  coffee,  sugar, 
and  other  products  of  the  country  are  shoved  out  by  peons  or 
drawn  by  mules.  The  freight  is  piled  upon  the  pier  until  the 
steamer  arrives,  when  it  is  carried  out  to  the  anchorage  in 
large  lighters  rowed  by  a  dozen  naked  boatmen.  The  cargo 
is  hoisted  and  lowered  by  means  of  a  huge  iron  crane  and 
derrick,  operated  by  a  small  steam-engine.  Bags  and  boxes 
are  tumbled  into  great  nets  of  cordage  holding  two  tons  or 
more,  which  are  jerked  up  into  the  air  by  the  derrick,  swung 
around  to  be  clear  of  the  pier,  and  then  dropped  into  the 
lighter. 

Live  cattle  are  hoisted  and  lowered  by  the  horns,  a  lasso 
being  thrown,  one  end  of  which  is  attached  to  the  derrick, 
and  the  animal  finds  himself  suddenly  jerked  into  the  air, 
and  hangs  kicking  and  struggling  until  his  feet  touch  the 


172 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


bottom  of  the  lighter,  when  he  shakes  himself  to  see  if  he  is 
still  alive.  It  is  a  wicked  way  to  treat  beasts,  but  under  the 
circumstances  there  seems  to  be  no  other  method.  Some¬ 
times,  when  the  rope  is  carelessly  adjusted,  and  the  animal  is 
young  and  heavy,  his  horns  are  torn  out  by  the  roots,  and  he 
falls  sixty  or  seventy  feet  into  the  lighter,  breaking  his  neck 
or  legs,  when  one  of  the  boatmen,  drawing  a  knife  from  his 
belt,  severs  the  jugular,  and  hangs  his  head  over  the  side  of 
the  boat  to  let  his  life-blood  run  into  the  sea. 

Horses  are  lifted  and  lowered  Avitli  greater  care  by  means 
of  a  strong  harness  of  Avide  leather,  with  an  iron  ring  in  the 
saddle  to  Avhich  a  rope’s  end  is  hooked. 

Humankind  are  treated  with  less  consideration.  "When 
passengers  arrive  by  a  vessel  they  come  to  the  pier  on  a 
lighter  with  freight,  which  rises  and  sinks  with  the  heavy 
sAvell  in  a  manner  that  is  not  only  very  alarming,  but  is  almost 
certain  to  cause  sea-sickness.  One  may  have  come  all  the 
Avay  from  Hew  York  or  Europe  to  Aspinwall,  and  then  from 
Panama  up  the  coast,  without  a  symptom  of  the  distressing 
malady,  but  he  is  pretty  sure  to  succumb  to  the  rocking  of  the 
lighter  at  La  Libertad,  as  it  rubs  and  pounds  against  the  iron 
trestle  of  the  pier,  while  he  is  awaiting  his  turn  to  land.  The 
officers  of  the  ATessels,  accustomed  to  the  motion,  spring  from 
the  gunwales  of  the  boat  to  the  rounds  of  ladders  that  hang 
down  the  sides  of  the  mole,  and  climb  them  as  the  boatmen 
do ;  but  ladies  and  gentlemen  unacquainted  with  this  method, 
and  untrained  to  clamber  among  the  rigging  of  a  ship,  are 
treated  to  a  sensation  that  is  apt  to  make  a  timid  person  ap¬ 
prehensive. 

An  iron  cage,  capable  of  holding  six  persons,  is  lowered  to 
the  lighter,  and  you  are  invited  to  step  in.  As  soon  as  it  is 
full  a  boatman  shuts  the  door  and  gives  a  signal  to  the  engi¬ 
neer  abovTe.  There  is  a  sudden,  startling  jerk,  you  shut  your 
eyes,  cling  to  the  bars  of  the  cage,  and  feel  your  heart  in  your 
throat.  The  cage  stops  as  suddenly  as  it  started,  whirls  around 
swiftly  for  an  instant  or  two,  then  sAvings  0ATer  the  pier,  and 
drops  with  a  thump.  The  door  is  opened,  you  step  out,  unin- 


LANDING  AT  LA  LIBEETAD. 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


175 


jured,  but  trembling  like  a  frightened  bird,  and  register  an 
unuttered  vow  that  you  will  never  land  at  La  Libertad  again. 
But  this  feeling  leaves  you  when  you  enjoy  a  laugh  at  the 
demonstrations  of  alarm  made  by  your  fellow-passengers  who 
have  to  follow  you,  and  when  you  are  assured,  as  people  al¬ 
ways  are,  that  thousands  have  landed  and  embarked  in  the 
same  manner  without  receiving  a  bruise  or  having  a  bone 
broken.  It  is  not  so  pleasant,  but  quite  as  safe,  as  scrambling- 
up  a  gangway  from  a  dock  to  the  deck  of  a  vessel. 


EN  ROUTE  TO  THE  INTERIOR. 


Although  San  Salvador  is  the  smallest  in  area  of  the  group 
of  republics,  and  only  a  little  larger  than  Connecticut,  it 
is  the  most  prosperous,  the  most  enterprising,  and  the  most 
densely  populated,  having  even  a  greater  number  of  inhabi¬ 
tants  than  the  land  of  wooden  nutmegs.  The  population 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


176 


averages  about  eighty  to  the  square  mile — almost  twenty 
times  that  of  its  neighbors.  The  natives  are  inclined  to  civil¬ 
ized  pursuits,  being  engaged  not  only  in  agriculture,  but  quite 
extensively  in  manufacture.  They  are  more  energetic  and 
industrious  than  the  people  in  other  parts  of  Central  Amer¬ 
ica,  work  harder,  and  accomplish  more,  gain  wealth  rapidly, 
and  are  frugal,  but  the  constantly  recurring  earthquakes  and 
political  disturbances  keep  the  country  poor.  When  the 
towns  are  destroyed  by  volcanic  eruptions,  they  are  not 
allowed  to  lie  in  ruins,  as  those  of  other  countries  are,  but 
the  inhabitants  at  once  clear  away  the  rubbish  and  begin  to 
rebuild.  The  city  of  San  Salvador  has  been  twice  rebuilt 
since  Leon  of  Nicaragua  was  laid  in  ruins,  but  the  debris  in 
the  latter  city  has  never  been  disturbed. 

Situ  Salvador  has  always  taken  the  lead  in  the  political  af¬ 
fairs  of  Central  America.  It  was  the  first  to  throw  off  the 
yoke  of  Spain,  and  uttered  the  first  cry  of  liberty,  as  V ene- 
zuela  did  among  the  nations  of  the  southern  continent.  The 
patriots  of  San  Salvador  received  the  cordial  co-operation  of 
the  liberal  element  in  the  cities  of  Grenada,  Nicaragua,  and 
San  Jose  of  Costa  Rica,  but  were  suppressed  by  the  Imperial 
power.  Its  provisional  congress  Avas  driven  from  place  to 
place,  but  remained  intact ;  it  had  the  sympathy  and  support 
of  the  people,  and  defied  the  invaders  of  the  country.  Final¬ 
ly,  as  a  last  resort,  the  congress,  by  a  solemn  act  passed  on  the 
2d  of  December,  1822,  resolved  to  annex  their  little  province 
to  the  United  States,  and  pro  Added  for  the  appointment  of 
commissioners  to  proceed  to  Washington  and  ask  its  incorpo¬ 
ration  in  the  body  politic  of  “  La  Grande  Republica.”  Before 
the  commissioners  could  leave  the  country  the  revolution  in 
the  other  Central  American  States  had  become  too  formidable 
to  suppress,  as  the  example  of  San  Salvador  had  spread  like 
an  epidemic  among  the  people,  and  its  demand  for  liberty  had 
found  an  echo  from  every  valley  and  from  every  hill,  from 
the  Rio  Grande  to  the  Chagres.  The  five  States  joined  in  a 
confederacy  one  year  after  the  act  of  annexation  to  the  United 
States  Avas  passed,  and  the  resolution  was  never  officially  sub- 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


177 


mitted  to  our  government.  This  was  before  the  days  of  the 
Monroe  Doctrine,  and  if  the  rise  of  Liberalism  in  Central 
America  had  not  been  so  rapid,  the  political  divisions  of  the 
North  American  continent  might  have  been  different  now, 
and  the  destiny  of  several  nations  changed. 


THE  PEAK  OP  SAN  SALVADOR. 


Some  time  before  the  organization  of  the  confederacy  the 
people  of  San  Salvador  had  adopted  a  constitution  and  formed 
a  State  government,  being  always  foremost,  and  their  exam¬ 
ple  was  followed  seven  months  later  by  Costa  Rica,  then  by 
Guatemala,  Honduras,  and  Nicaragua  in  succession.  Salva¬ 
dor  was  the  first  of  the  republics  also  to  throw  off  the  shackles 
of  the  Church.  Indignant  at  the  interference  of  the  arch¬ 
bishop  of  Guatemala,  who  had  charge  of  the  Church  in  Cen¬ 
tral  America,  they  defied  his  authority  and  elected  a  lib¬ 
eral  bishop  of  their  own.  The  archbishop  denounced  the  act 
and  appealed  to  the  Pope,  who  threatened  to  excommunicate 
12 


ITS 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  entire  population.  But  the  threat  was  received  with  in¬ 
difference,  and  the  example  of  the  Salvadorians  was  shortly 
after  imitated  by  the  people  of  Costa  Rica,  in  like  disregard 
of  the  will  of  the  successor  of  St.  Peter. 

The  President  is  elected  for  four  years,  the  members  of  the 
Senate  for  three,  and  of  the  House  of  Deputies  for  one,  all  of 
them  directly  by  the  people.  There  is  a  senator  for  every  thir¬ 
ty  thousand  of  the  population,  and  a  deputy  for  every  fifteen 
thousand.  The  exercise  of  suffrage  is  guarded  by  some  whole¬ 
some  restrictions.  All  married  men  can  vote,  except  those 
who  are  engaged  in  domestic  service,  those  who  are  without 
stated  occupation,  those  who  refuse  to  pay  their  legal  debts, 
those  who  owe  money  past  due  to  the  Government,  those 
who  have  accepted  pay  for  any  service  from  foreign  powers, 
and  those  who  have  been  convicted  of  felony.  Unmarried 
men,  to  exercise  the  right  of  citizens,  must  be  property  own¬ 
ers,  and  be  able  to  read  and  write.  All  voters  have  to  show 
receipts  for  the  payment  of  taxes  the  year  previous  if  they 
are  property  owners,  and  bankrupts  are  entirety  disfranchised, 
the  idea  being  that  none  but  a  producer — one  who  adds  to  the 
wealth  of  the  State  or  pays  taxes — shall  have  a  voice  in  its 
government.  Rone  but  property  owners  are  eligible  to  office. 

The  President  has  a  cabinet  of  four  ministers.  They 
have  in  charge  the  Departments  of  Finance,  War,  and  Public 
Works,  Internal  Affairs  and  Public  Instruction,  and  Foreign 
Affairs.  The  Judiciary  are  appointed  by  the  Deputies  and 
confirmed  by  the  Senate.  Education  is  free  and  compulsory. 
There  is  a  school  for  every  two  thousand  inhabitants,  sup¬ 
ported  bv  the  general  government,  and  a  University  at  the 
capital  with  three  hundred  and  fifty  students,  studying  law, 
medicine,  and  the  applied  sciences,  and  one  hundred  and 
forty  pursuing  a  classical  course. 

The  standing  army  consists  of  twelve  hundred  men,  but  all 
able-bodied  citizens  between  the  ages  of  eighteen  and  forty 
are  organized  as  a  militia,  and  are  subject  to  be  called  upon 
for  service  at  the  will  of  the  President. 

The  capital,  San  Salvador  (“  The  City  of  our  Saviour  ”),  is 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


179 


eighteen  miles  from  the  sea -coast,  and  has  an  elevation  of 
2800  feet.  It  is  surrounded  by  a  group  of  volcanoes,  two 
of  which  are  active,  one,  Yzalco,  discharging  immense  vol¬ 
umes  of  smoke,  ashes,  and  lava  at  regular  intervals  of  seven 
minutes  from  one  year’s  end  to  the  other.  San  Salvador  is 
reached  by  coaches  over  a  picturesque  mountain-road,  but  the 
journey  is  not  pleasant  in  the  dry  season  on  account  of  the 
dust,  nor  in  the  rainy  season  on  account  of  the  mud.  The 


THE  PLAZA. 


city  was  founded  in  1528  by  George  Alvarado,  a  brother  of 
the  renowned  lieutenant  of  Cortez,  who  was  the  discoverer, 
conqueror,  and  the  first  viceroy  of  Central  America.  The 
situation  it  occupies  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  that  can  be 
imagined,  being  in  the  midst  of  an  elevated  mesa,  or  table¬ 
land,  which  overlooks  the  sea  to  the  southward,  and  is  sur¬ 
rounded  by  mountains  upon  its  three  other  sides.  As  the 
prevailing  winds  are  from  the  ocean,  the  climate  is  always 


180 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


cool  and  healthful,  and 
the  mountain  streams 
are  so  abundant  that 
the  foliage  is  fresh 
during  the  entire  year. 
Through  each  street 
runs  an  asequia ,  or  ir¬ 
rigating  ditch,  which  is 
always  filled  with  wa¬ 
ter.  Pipes  lead  from 
it  into  the  gardens  of 
the  people,  and  supply 
hydrants  for 
their  use. 

There  is  very 


little  archi¬ 
tectural  taste 
shown  in  the 
construction 
of  the  dwell¬ 
ings  or  of  the 
public  build¬ 
ings.  This  is 
•  because  of  the 
frequency  of 
earthquakes. 
The  walls  are 
adobe,  with 
scarcely  any  ornamen¬ 
tation,  and  the  streets 


of  thick 


are  dull  and  unattrac- 


SPANISH- AMERICAN  COURTSHIP. 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


181 


tive  ;  but  within  the  houses  are  gardens  of  wonderful  beauty, 
in  which  the  people  spend  the  greater  portion  of  the  time, 
more  often  sleeping  in  a  hammock  among  the  trees  in  the 
dry  season  than  under  the  roofs  of  their  houses. 

The  public  buildings  are  of  insignificant  appearance,  and 
even  the  cathedral  and  the  other  churches  are  painfully  plain 
and  commonplace  compared  with  those  of  other  cities  of  its 
size.  All  this  is  owing  to  the  fact,  as  has  been  stated,  that 
the  danger  of  their  destruction  at  any  moment  forbids  a 
lavish  expenditure  in  construction  or  unnecessary  display. 

The  women  of  San  Salvador  are  neater  in  appearance,  more 
careful  in  their  dress,  and  are  therefore  more  attractive  than 
their  sisters  in  Nicaragua,  where,  if  there  is  any  difference 
between  the  sexes,  they  are  less  tidy  than  the  men.  The 
girls  in  the  rural  districts  always  bathe  in  the  asequias  every 
morning  at  daylight,  and  the  traveller  who  starts  out  early  gen¬ 
erally  surprises  groups  of  Naiads  disporting  in  the  streams. 
They  plunge  into  the  bushes  or  keep  their  bodies  under  the 
water  until  the  intruder  passes  by,  but  do  not  hesitate  to 
exchange  a  few  words  of  banter  with  him,  and  good-naturedly 
bid  him  godspeed. 

There  is  more  freedom  between  the  sexes  in  San  Salvador 
than  in  the  sister  republics ;  and  it  is  not  at  the  cost  of  morals, 
for,  as  a  rule,  in  countries  where  social  restrictions  are  the 
most  severe  there  is  the  greatest  amount  of  licentiousness. 
The  education  of  the  masses  has  proved  to  be  the  greatest 
safeguard,  and  the  number  of  illegitimate  births  is  reduced  as 
the  standard  of  intelligence  is  elevated.  The  constitutional 
provision  in  San  Salvador  which  confers  superior  advantages 
upon  married  men,  together  with  a  law  limiting  the  marriage 
fees  of  the  priests,  have  proven  to  be  wise  and  effective  pol¬ 
icy.  The  girls  marry  at  fifteen  and  over,  and  very  few  peons 
reach  their  majority  without  taking  a  lawful  wife. 

There  is  a  public  theatre,  subsidized  by  the  Government,  at 
which  frequent  entertainments  are  given,  and  nearly  every 
season  an  opera  company  comes  from  Italy  or  France.  The 
performances  are  liberally  patronized,  at  high  prices  of  ad- 


182 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


mission.  But  the  most  popular  funcions,  as  they  are  called, 
are  by  local  amateurs,  the  programmes  being  made  up  of 
vocal  and  instrumental  music,  recitations,  and  original  poems 
and  orations.  The  latter  are  always  the  popular  features 


A  HACIENDA. 


of  the  occasion,  and  the  f  uncions  are  usually  arranged  to 
give  some  young  orator  an  opportunity  to  show  his  talents 
before  the  foot-lights.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  rivalry,  too, 
among  the  local  poets,  each  aspirant  for  honors  having  his 
clique  of  admirers,  or  factions,  who  feel  it  their  duty  to  ap-> 
plaud  no  one  else,  however  meritorious,  and  to  hiss  all  others 
down.  When  two  of  these  popular  >lols  appear  upon  the 
platform  on  the  same  evening,  as  they  often  do,  there  are 
scenes  of  sensational  excitement  and  sometimes  mob  vio¬ 
lence.  The  subjects  of  all  the  orations  and  poems  are  usu¬ 
ally  patriotic — the  praise  of  San  Salvador  —  for  the  love 
of  country  is  a  theme  of  which  the  people  never  tire.  The 
programmes  of  all  public  entertainments  are  mostly  com- 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


183 


two  great  clays  of  the  year  are  Christmas  and  the  Feast  of 
San  Miguel  (St.  Michael),  the  patron  saint  of  the  republic. 
The  latter  is  celebrated  very  much  like  our  Independence 
Day  was  in  ancient  times,  except  that  the  hours  from 
sunrise  to  noon  are  devoted  to  solemn  religious  services  in 


posed  of  local  compositions,  national  airs,  and  patriotic  songs. 
The  musicians  prefer  the  scores  of  their  own  composers,  and 
everything  foreign  is  to  a  degree  offensive,  to  be  tolerated 
only  as  a  matter  of  variety. 

The  Salvadorians  have  a  dozen  or  more  “Fourths  of  July” 
— memorial  days — sometimes  two  patriotic  celebrations  occur¬ 
ring  in  a  month,  on  the  anniversary  of  historical  events.  All 
classes  of  people  join  in  the  demonstrations,  closing  their 
places  of  business,  decorating  the  streets,  attending  high-mass 
in  the  morning,  engaging  in  processions  and  hearing  patri¬ 
otic  orations  during  the  day,  and  in  the  evening  closing 
the  festivities  with  fireworks,  banquets,  and  balls.  But  the 


INTERIOR  OF  A  SAN  SALVADOR  HOUSE. 


184 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


all  the  churches,  the  bishop  himself  officiating  at  the  cathedral, 
and  the  rest  of  the  time  to  the  next  morning  to  holiday  festivi¬ 
ties.  There  is  much  powder  wasted  in  fire-crackers,  or  bombas, 
as  they  are  called,  fireworks,  and  salutes  by  the  artillery. 

The  annual  fair  of  St.  Miguel,  which  is  held  in  February,  is 
always  a  notable  event,  being  not  only  a  national  anniversary, 
but  the  greatest  market  season  of  the  year,  and  the  occasion 
of  general  and  prolonged  festivities.  It  lasts  about  two  weeks, 
and  is  attended  by  buyers  and  sellers  from  all  parts  of  Central 
America.  The  importing  houses  always  have  their  represent- 
atives  piesent  on  such  occasions.  The  days  are  occupied  with 
trading,  and  the  nights  with  balls,  concerts,  theatrical  per¬ 
formances,  and  gambling.  Everybody  plays  cards,  and  no 
one,  man  or  woman,  ever  sits  down  to  a  gam 5  without  stakes. 
Women  play  at  their  residences  with  or  without  their  gentle¬ 
men  fi  lends,  and  large  sums  of  money  often  pass  across  the 
table.  At  the  fairs,  and  in  fact  on  all  occasions  which  bring 
people  together,  the  peons  are  entertained  with  cock-fights 
and  bull-fights,  although  the  latter  cruel  sport  is  nominally 
forbidden  by  law.  The  bull-rings  and  cock-pits  are  invariably 
crowded  every  Sunday  afternoon,  and  always  on  saints’  days, 
and  often  the  best  people  are  found  among  the  spectators, 
particularly  the  young  men,  who  ruin  themselves  with  reck¬ 
less  betting.  ‘It  is  the  fashion  for  the  swells  to  keep  game¬ 
birds,  and  employ  professional  cock-fighters  to  train  ancl  han¬ 
dle  them. 

The  Christmas  festivities  commence  about  midnight,  and 
the  explosions  of  cannon  and  fireworks  always  begin  a  s' soon 
as  the  clock  in  the  cathedral  tower  strikes  twelve.  Everv- 
body  is  up  and  dressed  before  daylight  to  attend  early  mass, 
and  when  the  sun  rises  the  streets  are  full  of  people  salut¬ 
ing  each  other  by  exchanging  the  compliments  of  the  day, 
and  throwing  egg-shells  filled  with  perfumed  water.  From 
morning  till  night  the  air  is  full  of  the  noise  of  fireworks, 
cannonades,  the  shouts  of  people,  and  the  music  of  military 
bands,  while  processions  are  continually  passing  through  the 
principal  streets.  In  nearly  every  house  preparations  have 


SAN  SALVADOK. 


185 


been  going  on  for  weeks,  not  for  the  exhibition  of  Christmas- 
trees  or  the  exchange  of  gifts,  but  for  the  representation  of 
the  naciccmiento ,  or  birth  of  Christ.  The  best  room  in  the 
house  is  often  fitted  up  to  resemble  a  manger,  asses  being 
brought  in  from  the  stable  to  make  the  scene  more  realistic. 
Several  incidents  in  the  fife  of  the  Saviour  are  portrayed  in 
a  like  manner.  In  other  residences  are  different  representa¬ 
tions.  Sometimes  the  parlor  is  arranged  like  a  bower,  filled 
with  tropical  plants  and  flowers,  moss  -  covered  stones  and 
sea -shells,  and  draped  with  vines.  Within  the  bower  are 
figures  of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  surrounded  by  the  kneeling 
Magi  and  the  members  of  the  Holy  Family. 


A  TYPICAL  TOWN. 


It  is  the  ambition  of  the  mistress  of  the  house  to  surpass 
all  her  friends  and  neighbors  in  the  realism  of  her  representa¬ 
tion  and  in  the  elegance  with  which  the  puppets  are  dressed. 
During  the  day  there  is  a  general  interchange  of  calls  to  see 
the  displays,  to  criticise  them,  and  make  comparisons.  The 
grandest  display  is  always  made  in  the  cathedral,  the  cost 


186 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


WHAT  ALARMS  THE  CITIZENS. 

often  amounting  to  many  thousands  of 
dollars,  while  the  subordinate  churches 
enter  into  an  active  and  expensive  rivalry, 
raising  funds  for  the  purpose  by  soliciting 
subscriptions  in  the  parish.  The  cere¬ 
monies  usually  begin  before  daylight,  and 
last  for  a  couple  of  hours,  high-mass  being 
sung  by  the  leading  vocalists  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  assisted  by  orchestras  and  military 
bands. 

The  favorite  incident  for  portrayal  is 
the  Adoration  of  the  Magi,  and  human  fig¬ 
ures  are  usually  trained  by  the  priests  to 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


187 


play  the  various  characters.  The  most  beautiful  woman  in 
the  city  is  selected  to  act  the  part  of  the  Virgin,  and  some 
young  infant  is  volunteered  to  represent  the  baby  Christ.  The 
church  is  always  crowded,  and  illuminated  by  thousands  of 
candles.  At  the  proper  moment  the  curtain  is  drawn,  and 
the  choir  breaks  out  in  a  glorious  anthem ;  the  bells  of  the 
churches  ring,  and  the  vast  audience,  rising  to  their  feet,  join 
in  the  exultant  song,  “  Jubilate !  jubilate !  Christ  is  born !” 
Processions  of  priests  enter,  and  at  the  close  of  the  anthem 
the  bishop  sings  high -mass  to  a  living  representation  of  the 
Virgin  and  Child. 

The  people  are  not  so  priestridden  as  those  of  some  of  the 
Spanish- American  countries,  being  naturally  more  self-reliant 
and  independent.  They  know  what  liberty  is,  and  insist  upon 
being  allowed  to  enjoy  it,  both  civil  and  religious.  They 
choose  their  own  priests,  and  the  latter  elect  their  own  bishop, 
without  regard  to  the  Pope  or  the  College  of  Cardinals.  The 
clerical  party  in  politics,  or  the  Serviles,  as  the}7  were  called, 
because  of  their  slavery  to  the  Church,  has  long  been  extinct 
in  San  Salvador,  and  the  political  struggles  are  more  personal 
than  over  abstract  issues.  There  is  a  considerable  degree  of 
superstition  among  the  people,  and  they  believe  in  all  sorts  of 
signs  and  omens,  but  the  priests  do  not  attempt  to  humbug 
them  with  bogus  miracles  or  wonder-working  images. 

Much  of  this  superstition  relates  to  the  earthquakes  and 
volcanic  disturbances  to  which  the  country  is  so  subject. 
Within  view  of  the  capital  are  eleven  great  volcanoes,  two  of 
which  are  unceasingly  active,  while  the  others  are  subject  to 
occasional  eruptions.  The  nearest  is  the  mountain  of  San 
Salvador,  about  eight  thousand  feet  high,  and  showing  to 
great  advantage  because  it  rises  so  abruptly  from  the  plain. 
It  is  only  three  miles  from  the  city,  to  the  westward,  very 
steep,  and  its  sides  are  broken  by  monstrous  gorges,  immense 
rocky  declivities,  and  projecting  cliffs.  The  summit  is  crowned 
by  a  cone  of  ashes  and  scoria;  that  have  been  thrown  out 
in  centuries  past,  but  since  1856,  subsequent  to  the  great¬ 
est  earthquake  the  country  has  known,  the  crater  has  been 


188 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


extinct,  and  is  now  filled  with  a  bottomless  lake.  Very  few 
people  have  ever  ascended  to  the  summit,  because  of  the  ex¬ 
treme  dilficulty  and  peril  of  making  the  climb,  while  even  a 
smaller  number  have  entered  the  chasm  in  which  the  crater 
lies.  Some  years  ago  a  couple  of  venturesome  French  scien¬ 
tists  went  down,  but  became  exhausted  in  their  attempts  to 
return.  Their  companions  who  remained  at  the  top  lowered 
them  food  and  blankets  by  fines,  and  they  were  finally  res¬ 
cued,  after  several  days  of  confinement  in  their  rock)'-  prison, 
by  a  detachment  of  soldiers,  who  hauled  them  up  the  preci¬ 
pice  by  ropes. 

The  two  active  volcanoes,  or  vivos,  as  the  people  call  them, 
are  San  Miguel  and  Yzalco,  and  there  are  none  more  violent 
on  the  face  of  the  globe.  They  present  a  magnificent  display 
to  the  passengers  of  steamers  sailing  by  the  coast,  or  anchored 
in  the  harbor  of  La  Libertad  and  Acajutla,  constantly  dis¬ 
charging  masses  of  lava  which  flow  down  their  sides  in 
blazing  torrents,  and  illuminating  the  sky  with  the  flames 
that  issue  from  the  craters  at  regular  intervals.  Yzalco  is  as 
regular  as  a  clock,  the  eruption  occurring  like  the  beating  of 
a  mighty  pidse  every  seven  minutes. 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  of  a  grander  spectacle  than  this 
monster.  It  rises  seven  thousand  feet,  almost  directly  from 
the  sea,  and  an  immense  volume  of  smoke,  like  a  plume,  is 
continually  poiu’ing  out  of  its  summit,  broken  with  such  regu¬ 
larity  by  masses  of  flame  that  rise  a  thousand  feet  that  it  has 
been  named  El  Faro  del  Salvador — “  The  Light-house  of  Sal¬ 
vador.”  Around  the  base  of  the  mountain  are  fertile  plan¬ 
tations,  while  above  them,  covering  about  two -thirds  of  its 
surface,  is  an  almost  impenetrable  forest,  whose  foliage  is  per¬ 
petual  and  of  the  darkest  green.  Then  beyond  the  forest  is  a 
ring  of  reddish  scoriie,  while  above  it  the  five  ashes  and  lava 
that  are  cast  from  the  crater  so  regularly  are  constantly 
changing  from  livid  yellow,  when  they  are  heated,  to  a  silver 
gray  as  they  cool. 

Yzalco  is  in  many  respects  the  most  remarkable  volcano  on 
earth ;  first,  because  its  discharges  have  continued  so  long  and 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


189 


JL 


YZALCO  FROM  A  DISTANCE. 


with  such  great  regularity ;  again,  because  the  tumult  in  the 
earth’s  bowels  is  always  to  be  heard,  as  the  rumblings  and 
explosions  are  constant,  being  audible  for  a  hundred  miles, 
and  sounding  like  the  noises  which  Rip  van  Winkle  heard 
when  he  awakened  from  his  sleep  in  the  Catskills;  and, 


190 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


finally,  it  is  the  only  volcano  that  has  originated  on  this 
continent  since  the  discovery  by  Columbus. 

It  arose  suddenly  from  the  plain  in  the  spring  of  1770,  in 
the  midst  of  what  had  been  for  nearly  a  hundred  years  the 
profitable  estate  of  Senor  Don  Balthazar  Erazo,  who  was 
absent  from  the  country  at  the  time,  and  was  greatly  amazed 
upon  his  return  to  discover  that  his  magnificent  coffee  and 
indigo  plantation  had,  without  his  knowledge  or  consent,  been 
exchanged  for  a  first-class  volcano.  In  December,  1769,  the 
peons  on  the  hacienda  were  alarmed  by  terrific  rumblings 
under  the  ground,  constant  tremblings  of  the  earth,  and  fre¬ 
quent  earthquakes,  which  did  not  extend  over  the  country  as 
usual,  but  seemed  to  be  confined  to  that  particular  locality. 
They  left  the  place  in  terror  when  the  tremblings  and  noises 
continued,  and  returning  a  week  or  two  after,  found  that  all 
the  buildings  had  been  shaken  down,  trees  uprooted,  and  large 
craters  opened  in  the  fields  which  had  been  level  earth  before. 
From  these  craters  smoke  and  steam  issued,  and  occasionally 
flames  were  seen  to  come  out  of  the  ground.  Some  brave 
vaqueros,  or  herdsmen,  remained  near  by  to  watch  develop¬ 
ments,  and  on  the  23d  of  February,  1770,  they  were  enter¬ 
tained  by  a  spectacle  that  no  other  men  have  been  permitted 
to  witness,  for  about  ten  o’clock  on  the  morning  of  that  day 
the  grand  upheaval  took  place,  and  it  seemed  to  them,  as  they 
fled  in  terror,  that  the  whole  universe  was  being  turned  up¬ 
side  down. 

First  there  were  a  series  of  terrific  explosions,  which  lifted 
the  crust  of  the  earth  several  hundred  feet,  and  out  of  the 
cracks  issued  flames  and  lava,  and  immense  volumes  of  smoke. 
An  hour  or  two  afterwards  there  was  another  and  a  grander 
convulsion,  which  shook  and  startled  the  country  for  a  hun¬ 
dred  miles  around.  Rocks  weighing  thousands  of  tons  were 
hurled  into  the  air,  and  fell  several  leagues  distant.  The  sur¬ 
face  of  the  earth  was  elevated  about  three  thousand  feet,  and 
the  internal  recesses  were  purged  of  masses  of  lava  and  blis¬ 
tered  stone,  Avhich  fell  in  a  heap  around  the  hole  from  which 
they  issued.  These  discharges  continued  for  several  days 


SAN  SALVADOR 


191 


YZALCO. 

at  irregular  intervals,  accompanied  by  loucl  explosions  and 
earthquakes,  which  did  much  damage  throughout  the  entire 
republic ;  the  disturbance  was  perceptible  in  Nicaragua  and 
Honduras.  In  this  manner  was  a  volcano  born,  and  it  has 
proved  to  be  a  healthy  and  vigorous  child.  In  less  than  two 


192 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


months  from  a  level  field  arose  a  mountain  more  than  four 
thousand  feet  high,  and  the  constant  discharges  from  the  era¬ 
ser  which  opened  then  have  accumulated  around  its  edges 
until  its  elevation  has  increased  two  thousand  feet  more. 
Unfortunately,  the  growth  of  the  monster  has  not  been  scien¬ 
tifically  observed  or  accurately  measured,  but  the  cone  of 
lava  and  ashes,  which  is  now  twenty -five  hundred  feet  from 
the  foundation  of  earth  upon  which  it  rests,  is  constantly 
growing  in  bulk  and  height  by  the  incessant  discharges  of 
lava,  ashes,  and  other  volcanic  matter  upon  it. 

The  capital  of  San  Salvador  has  been  thrice  almost  entirely, 
and  eleven  times  in  its  history  partially,  destroyed  by  earth¬ 
quakes  and  volcanic  eruptions  coming  together.  These  catas- 
trophies  occurred  in  1575,  1593,  1625,  1656,  1770,  1773,  1798, 
1839,  1854,  1873,  and  1882.  The  most  serious  convulsions 
took  place  in  1773  and  1854,  when  not  only  the  City  of  Our 
Saviour,  but  several  other  towns  were  entirely  ruined,  and 
nearly  every  place  suffered  to  a  greater  or  less  degree ;  but 
the  restoration  was  rapid  and  complete. 

The  chief  products  of  the  country  are  coffee,  cocoa,  sugar, 
indigo,  and  other  agricultural  staples,  which  are  raised  by  the 
same  process  that  prevails  in  other  States,  with  the  addition 
of  a  balsam  that  is  very  valuable,  and  is  grown  exclusively 
on  a  little  strip  of  lapd  lying  along  the  coast  between  the  two 
principal  seaports,  La  Libertad  and  Acajutla.  Lying  to  the 
seaward  of  the  volcanic  range  is  a  forest  about  six  hundred 
square  miles  in  extent  that  is  composed  almost  exclusively  of 
balsam-trees,  and  is  known  as  the  “  Costa  del  Balsimo.”  It 
is  populated  by  a  remnant  of  the  aboriginal  Indian  race,  who 
are  supported  by  the  product  of  their  forest,  and  are  per¬ 
mitted  to  remain  there  undisturbed,  and  very  little  altered 
from  their  original  condition. 

The  forest  is  traversed  only  by  foot-paths,  so  intricate  as 
to  baffle  the  stranger  who  attempts  to  enter  it ;  and  it  is  not 
safe  to  make  such  an  attempt,  as  the  Indians,  peaceful  enough 
when  they  come  out  to  mingle  with  the  other  inhabitants  of 
the  country,  violently  resent  any  intrusion  into  their  strong- 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


193 


existing  at  the  end  of  each  year  is  supposed  to  be  buried  in 
a  sacred  spot  with  religious  ceremonies.  Both  -  men  and 
women  go  entirely  naked,  except  for  a  breech-clout,  but  when 
they  come  to  town  they  assume  the  ordinary  cotton  garments 
worn  by  the  peons.  They  are  darker  in  color,  larger  in  stat¬ 
ure,  more  taciturn  and  morose,  than  the  other  Indians  of  the 
country,  but  are  temperate,  industrious,  and  adhere  to  their 
13 


hold.  They  live  as  a  community,  all  their  earnings  being 
intrusted  to  the  care  of  ahuales — old  men  who  exercise  both 
civil  and  religious  offices,  and  keep  the  common  funds  in  a 
treasure-box,  to  be  distributed  among  the  families  as  their 
necessities  require.  There  is  a  prevailing  impression  that  the 
tribe  has  an  enormous  sum  of  money  in  its  possession,  as  their 
earnings  are  large  and  their  wants  are  few.  The  surplus 


IN  THE  INTERIOR. 


194 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ancient  rites  with  great  tenacity.  They  are  known  to  history 
as  the  Nahuatls,  but  are  commonly  spoken  of  as  “  Balsimos.” 

Agriculture  is  carried  on  by  them  only  to  an  extent  suffi¬ 
cient  to  supply  their  own  wants,  and  usually  by  the  women, 
while  the  men  are  engaged  in  gathering  the  balsam,  of  which 
they  sell  about  twenty  thousand  dollars’  worth  each  year. 
They  number  about  two  thousand  people,  and  including  what 
they  spend  at  their  festivals,  which  are  more  like  bacchanalian 


HAULING  SUGAR-CANE. 


riots  than  religious  ceremonies,  and  are  accompanied  by  scenes 
of  revolting  bestiality,  their  annual  expenses  cannot  be  more 
than  one  half  of  their  incomes. 

The  balsam  is  obtained  by  making  an  incision  in  the  tree, 
from  which  the  sap  exudes,  and  is  absorbed  by  bunches  of 
raw  cotton.  These,  when  thoroughly  saturated,  are  thrown 
into  vats  of  boiling  water  and  replaced  by  others.  The  bal¬ 
sam  leaves  the  cotton,  rises  to  the  surface  of  the  water,  and 
at  intervals  is  skimmed  off  and  placed  in  wooden  bowls  or 


SAN  SALVADOR. 


195 


gourds,  where  it  hardens,  and  then  is  wrapped  in  the  leaves 
of  the  tree  and  sent  to  market.  In  commerce  it  is  known  as 
Peruvian  balsam,  because  in  early  times  Callao  was  the  great 
market  for  its  sale,  but  the  product  comes  exclusively  from 
San  Salvador. 

There  is  one  railroad  in  San  Salvador,  extending  from  Aca- 
jutla  to  the  city  of  Sonsonate,  the  centre  of  the  sugar  district, 
and  it  is  being  extended  to  Santa  Ana,  the  chief  town  of  the 
Northern  Province.  It  is  owned  by  a  native  capitalist,  and 
operated  under  the  management  of  an  American  engineer. 
The  plan  is  to  extend  the  track  parallel  with  the  sea  through 
the  entire  republic,  in  the  valley  back  of  the  mountain  range, 
with  branches  through  the  passes  to  the  principal  cities.  It 
now  passes  two -thirds  of  the  distance  around  the  base  of 
the  volcano  Yzalco,  and  from  the  cars  is  furnished  a  most 
remarkable  view  of  that  sublime  spectacle.  The  entire  system 
when  completed  will  not  consist  of  more  than  two  hundred 
and  fifty  miles  of  track,  and  the  work  of  construction  is  nei¬ 
ther  difficult  nor  expensive. 


SAN  JOSE. 


THE  CAPITAL  OF  COSTA  RICA. 

Nearly  four  hundred  years  ago  an  old  sailor  coasted  along 
the  eastern  shore  of  Costa  Rica  in  a  bark  not  much  bigger 
than  a  canal-boat,  searching  for  a  passage  to  the  western  sea. 
lie  had  a  bunk  built  in  the  bows  of  his  little  vessel  where  he 
could  rest  his  weary  bones  and  look  out  upon  the  world  he 
had  discovered.  There  was  little  left  of  him  but  his  will. 
He  had  explored  the  whole  coast  from  Yucatan  to  Trinidad, 
and  found  it  an  unbroken  line  of  continent,  a  contradiction  of 
all  his  reasoning,  a  defiance  of  all  his  theories,  and  an  impas¬ 
sable  obstacle  to  the  hopes  he  had  cherished  for  thirty  3Tears. 
The  geography  of  the  New  World  was  clear  enough  in  his 
mind.  The  earth  was  a  globe,  there  was  no  doubt  of  it,  and 
there  must  be  a  navigable  belt  of  water  around.  So  he  groped 
along,  seeking  the  passage  he  felt  should  be  there,  cruising 
into  each  river,  and  following  the  shore-lines  of  each  gulf  and 
bay.  Instinctively  he  hovered  around  the  narrowest  por¬ 
tion  of  the  continent,  where  was  but  a  slender  strip  of  land, 
upheaved  by  some  mighty  convulsion,  to  shatter  his  theories 
and  defy  his  dreams.  It  was  the  most  pathetic  picture  in  all 
history.  Finally,  overcome  by  age  and  infirmity,  he  had  to 
abandon  the  attempt,  and  fearing  to  return  to  Spain  without 
something  to  satisfy  the  avarice  of  his  sovereign,  surrendered 
the  command  of  his  little  fleet  to  his  brother  Bartholomew, 
and  wept  while  the  carnival  of  murder  and  plunder,  that  was 
to  last  three  centuries,  was  begun. 

Among  other  points  visited  for  barter  with  the  Indians 
was  a  little  harbor  in  which  were  islands  covered  with  limes, 
and  Columbus  marked  the  place  upon  his  chart  “  Puerto  de 


SAN  JOSE. 


197 


Limon.”  To-day  it  is  a  collection  of  cheap  wooden  houses 
and  bamboo  huts,  with  wharves,  warehouses,  and  railway 
shops,  surrounded  by  the  most  luxurious  tropical  vegetation, 
alive  with  birds  of  gorgeous  plumage,  venomous  reptiles,  and 
beautiful  tiger-cats.  Here  and  there  about  the  place  are 


CRATER  OP  A  VOLCANO. 

patches  of  sugar-cane  and  groups  of  cocoa-nut  trees,  with  the 
wide-spreading  bread-fruit  that  God  gave  to  the  tropical  sav¬ 
age  as  He  gave  rice  and  maize  to  his  Northern  brother,  and 
the  slender,  graceful  rubber-tree,  whose  frosty-colored  mottled 
trunk  looks  like  the  neck  of  a  giraffe.  It  scarcely  casts  a 
shadow ;  but  the  banana,  with  its  long  pale  green  plumes, 


198 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


furnishes  plenty  of  shelter  for  the  palm-thatched  cabins,  the 
naked  babies  that  play  around  them,  and  the  half -dressed 
women  who  seem  always  to  be  dozing  in  the  sun. 

Surrounding  the  city  for  a  radius  of  threescore  miles  is  a 
jungle  full  of  patriarchal  trees,  stately  and  venerable,  draped 
with  long  moss  and  slender  vines  that  look  like  the  rigging 
of  a  ship.  Their  limbs  are  covered  with  wonderful  orchids 
as  bright  and  radiant  as  the  plumage  of  the  birds,  the  Espi- 
ritu  Santo  and  other  rare  plants  being  as  plentiful  as  the 
daisies  in  a  New  England  meadow.  There  is  another  flower, 
elsewhere  unknown,  called  the  “  turn-sol,”  which  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  is  white  and  wax  -  like,  resembling  the  camellia,  but  at 
noon  has  turned  to  the  most  vivid  scarlet,  and  at  sunset  drops 
off  its  stem.  This  picture  is  seen  from  shipboard  through  a 
veil  of  mist — miasmatic  vapor — in  which  the  lungs  of  men 
find  poison,  but  the  air  plants  food.  It  reaches  from  the 
breasts  of  the  mountains  to  the  foam-fringed  shore,  broken 
only  by  the  fleecy  clouds  that  hang  low  and  motionless  in  the 
atmosphere,  as  if  they,  with  all  the  rest  of  nature,  had  sniffed 
the  fragrance  of  the  poppy  and  sunk  to  sleep. 

But  in  the  mornings  and  the  evenings,  when  the  air  is  cool, 
Limon  is  a  busy  place.  Dwarfish  engines  with  long  trains 
of  cars  wind  down  from  the  interior,  laden  with  coffee  and 
bananas.  Half -naked  roustabouts  file  back  and  forth  across 
the  gang-planks,  loading  steamers  for  Liverpool,  New  York, 
and  New  Orleans.  The  coffee  is  allowed  to  accumulate  in 
the  warehouses  until  the  vessels  come,  but  the  bananas  must 
not  be  picked  till  the  last  moment,  at  telegraphic  notice,  the 
morning  the  steamer  sails.  Trains  of  cars  are  sent  to  the 
side-tracks  of  every  plantation,  and  are  loaded  with  the  half- 
ripe  fruit  still  glistening  with  the  dew.  There  are  often  as 
many  as  fifty  thousand  bunches  on  a  single  steamer,  repre¬ 
senting  six  million  bananas,  but  they  are  so  perishable  that 
more  than  half  the  cargo  goes  overboard  before  its  destina¬ 
tion  is  reached.  The  shipments  of  bananas  from  Costa  Rica 
are  something  new  in  trade.  Only  a  few  years  since  all  our 
supply  came  from  Honduras  and  the  West  Indies,  but  the 


SAN  JOSfi. 


199 


development  of  the  plantations  around  Limon  has  given  that 
port  almost  a  monopoly.  This  is  due  to  the  construction  of  a 
railway  seventy  miles  into  the  interior,  intended  to  connect 
the  capital  of  the  country  and  its  populous  valley  with  the 
Atlantic  Ocean.  The  road  was  begun  by  the  Government, 


RUBBER-TREES. 


but  before  its  completion  passed  into  the  hands  of  Minor  C. 
Keith,  of  Brooklyn,  who  has  a  perpetual  lease,  and  is  attempt¬ 
ing  to  extend  it  to  San  Jose,  from  and  to  which  freight  is 
transported  in  ox-carts,  a  distance  of  thirty  miles. 

Along  the  track  many  plantations  have  been  opened  in  the 
jungle,  and  produce  prolifically.  Numbers  of  the  settlers  are 


200 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


from  the  United  States,  from  the  South  particularly,  and  it 
being  the  fashion  to  christen  the  plantations,  the  traveller 
finds  over  the  entrances  sign-boards  that  bear  familiar  names. 
Over  the  gate-way  to  one  of  the  finest  haciendas,  as  they  are 
called,  is  the  inscription  “Johnny  Eeb’s  Last  Ditch,”  a  for¬ 
lorn  and  almost  hopeless  ex-Confederate  having  drifted  there, 
after  much  buffeting  by  fortune,  and  taken  up  Government 
land,  on  which  he  now  is  in  a  fair  way  to  make  a  fortune. 

From  the  terminus  of  the  railway  the  ride  to  the  capital  is 
over  picturesque  mountain  passes  and  through  deep  gorges 
and  canons  whose  mighty  walls  never  admit  the  sun.  There 
are  no  coaches,  but  the  ride  must  be  made  on  mule-back,  start¬ 
ing  before  sunrise  so  as  to  reach  the  city  by  dark.  San  Jose 
is  found  in  a  pretty  valley  between  the  two  ranges  of  the  Cor¬ 
dilleras,  and  surrounded  by  an  entertaining  group  of  volca¬ 
noes,  not  less  than  eight  being  in  sight  from  any  of  the  house¬ 
tops.  Ordinarily  they  behave  very  well,  and  sleep  as  quietly 
as  the  prophets,  but  now  and  then  their  slumbers  are  disturbed 
by  indigestion,  when  they  get  restless,  yawn  a  little,  breathe 
forth  fire  and  smoke,  and  vomit  sulphur,  lava,  and  ashes.  One 
would  think  that  people  living  continually  in  the  midst  of 
danger  from  earthquakes  and  eruptions  would  soon  become 
accustomed  to  them  ;  but  it  is  not  so.  The  interval  since  the 
last  calamity,  when  the  city  of  Cartago  was  destrojmd,  has 
been  forty  years  —  so  long  that  the  next  entertainment  is 
expected  to  be  one  of  unusual  interest ;  and  as  no  announce¬ 
ments  are  made  in  the  newspapers,  the  people  are  always  in 
a  solemn  state  of  uncertainty  whether  they  will  awake  in  a 
pile  of  brimstone  and  ashes  or  under  their  ponchos  as  usual. 
This  gives  life  a  zest  the  superstitious  do  not  enjoy. 

It  is  the  theory  of  the  local  scientists  that  there  is  a  subter¬ 
ranean  connection  between  the  group  of  volcanoes,  and  that 
prodigious  fires  are  constantly  burning  beneath.  Therefore  it 
is  necessary  for  at  least  one  of  them  to  be  always  doing  busi¬ 
ness,  to  permit  the  smoke  and  gases  to  escape  through  its 
crater,  for  if  all  should  suspend  operations  the  gases  would 
gather  in  the  vaults  below,  and  when  they  reached  the  fires 


THE  ROAD  FROM  FORT  L1MON  TO  SAN  JOSE. 


SAN  JOSfi, 


203 


would  shake  the  earth  by  their  explosion.  It  is  said  to  be  a 
fact  that  the  total  cessation  of  all  the  volcanoes  is  followed 
by  an  earthquake,  and  if  Tierra  Alba,  which  is  active  now, 
should  cease  to  show  its  cloud  of  smoke  by  day  and  its  pillar 
of  fire  by  night,  the  people  would  leave  their  houses  and  take 
to  the  fields  in  anticipation  of  the  impending  calamity.  All 


A  PEON. 


the  buildings  in  the  country  are  built  for  earthquake  service, 
being  seldom  more  than  one  story  in  elevation,  and  never 
more  than  two,  of  thick  adobe  walls,  which  are  light  and 
elastic. 

The  city  has  about  thirty  thousand  inhabitants — nearly  one- 
seventh  of  the  entire  population  of  the  repubhc — and  seems 


204 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


quaint  and  queer  to  the  North  American  traveller  because  of 
its  unlikeness  to  anything  he  has  seen  at  home.  The  climate 
is  a  perpetual  spring.  The  flowers  are  perennial ;  the  foliage 
fades  and  falls  in  autumn,  dying  from  exhaustion,  but  never 
from  frost.  The  days  are  always  warm  and  delightful,  and 
the  nights  cool  and  favorable  to  sweet  rest.  Winter  is  not  so 
agreeable  as  summer,  for  when  it  is  not  raining  the  winds  blow 
dust  in  your  eyes,  and  you  miss  the  foliage  and  fruits.  There 
is  not  such  a  thing  as  an  overcoat  in  the  place — the  store¬ 
keepers  do  not  sell  them  —  and  the  natives  never  heard  of 
stoves.  One  can  look  over  the  roofs  of  the  town  from  the 
tower  of  the  cathedral  and  not  see  a  chimney  anywhere.  The 
mercury  seldom  goes  above  eighty,  and  never  below  sixty, 
Fahrenheit.  The  thick  walls  of  the  houses  make  an  even 
temperature  within,  scarcely  varying  five  degrees  from  one 
year  to  another,  and  it  never  rains  long  enough  for  the  damp¬ 
ness  to  penetrate  them.  There  is  no  architectural  taste  dis¬ 
played,  and  a  never-ending  sameness  marks  the  streets.  It  is 
only  in  the  country  that  picturesque  dwellings  are  found,  and 
usually  Nature,  not  man,  lias  made  them  so.  The  shops  differ 
from  the  residences  only  in  having  wider  doors  and  larger 
rooms,  while  the  warehouses  are  usually  abandoned  monas¬ 
teries  or  discarded  dwellings. 

The  merchants  are  mostly  foreigners — Frenchmen  or  Ger¬ 
mans  ;  the  professional  men  and  laborers  are  natives.  The 
people  are  more  peaceful  and  industrious  than  in  the  other 
Central  American  States,  and  have  the  reputation  for  greater 
honesty,  but  less  ingenuity,  than  their  neighbors.  They  take 
no  interest  in  politics,  seldom  vote,  and  do  not  seem  to  care 
who  governs  them.  There  has  not  been  a  revolution  in  Costa 
Rica  since  1872.  and  that  grew  out  of  the  rivalry  of  two  Eng¬ 
lish  banking  houses  in  securing  a  government  loan.  The 
prisons  are  empty ;  the  doors  of  the  houses  are  seldom  locked ; 
the  people  are  temperate  and  amiable,  and  live  at  peace  with 
one  another.  The  national  vice  is  indolence — mahana  (pro¬ 
nounced  manyannah),  a  word  that  is  spoken  oftener  than  any 
other  in  the  language,  and  means  “  some  other  time.”  It  is 


SAN  JOSfi. 


205 


a  proverb  that  the  Costa-Bican  is  “always  lying  under  the 
manana-tree,”  and  that  is  why  the  people  are  poor  and  the 
nation  bankrupt.  The  resources  of  the  country,  agricultural, 
mineral,  pastoral,  and  timber,  are  immense,  but  have  not  even 
been  explored.  N  inety  per  cent,  of  the  natives  have  never 
been  outside  the  little  valley  in  which  they  were  born ;  while 
the  Government  has  done  little  to  invite  immigration  and 
encourage  development.  There  are  two  railroads,  both  unfin¬ 
ished,  and  the  money  that  was  borrowed  to  build  them  was 
wasted  in  the  most  ludicrous  way. 

In  1872  it  was  decided  that  the  future  prosperity  of  the 
country  demanded  the  construction  of  railways  connecting 
the  one  inhabited  valley  with  the  two  oceans,  and  the  Con¬ 
gress  ordered  a  survey.  It  was  made  by  English  engineers, 
who  submitted  profiles  of  the  most  practicable  routes  and 
estimates  of  the  cost  of  construction.  There  being  no  wealth 
in  the  country,  a  loan  was  necessary,  and  the  two  banking 
houses,  both  operated  by  Englishmen  upon  English  capital, 
sought  the  privilege  of  negotiating  it.  The  President  made 
his  selection.  The  disappointed  banker  decided  to  overthrow 
the  Government  and  set  up  a  new  one  that  would  cancel  the 
contract  and  recognize  his  claims.  Down  on  the  plains  of 
Guanacasta  was  a  cow-boy,  Tomas  Guardia  by  name,  who 
had  won  reputation  as  the  commander  of  a  squad  of  cavalry 
in  a  war  with  Nicaragua,  and  was  known  over  all  Central 
America  for  his  native  ability,  soldierly  qualities,  and  desper¬ 
ate  valor. 

The  banker  who  had  failed  to  get  his  spoon  into  the  pud¬ 
ding  called  into  the  conspiracy  a  number  of  disappointed  poli¬ 
ticians  and  discontented  adherents  of  the  existing  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  it  was  decided  to  send  for  Guardia  to  come  to  the 
capital  and  lead  the  revolution.  By  offering  him  pecuniary 
inducements  and  a  promise  of  being  made  commander-in-chief 
of  the  Federal  army  if  the  revolution  was  a  success,  the  serv¬ 
ices  of  the  cow-boy  were  secured.  He  called  together  about 
one  hundred  men  of  his  own  class,  made  a  rendezvous  at  a 
plantation  just  outside  of  the  city  limits,  and  one  moonlight 


206 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


night  rode  into  town,  surprised  the  guard  at  the  military  gar¬ 
rison,  captured  the  commander  of  the  army  and  all  his  troops, 
took '  possession  of  the  Government  offices,  and  proclaimed 
martial  law.  As  the  Costa-Rican  army  consisted  of  but  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men,  accustomed  only  to  police  duty  and 
parades,  this  was  not  a  difficult  or  a  daring  undertaking.  Those 
of  the  officials  who  were  captured  were  locked  up,  and  those 


A  BANANA  PLANTATION. 


SAN  JOSfi. 


207 


who  escaped  fled  to  the  woods  and  then  left  the  country. 
Among  the  latter  class  was  the  “  Constitutional  President,” 
as  the  regularly  elected  rulers  in  Spanish  America  are  always 
called,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  frequent  “  Pronuncia- 
mento  Presidents”  and  “  Jefes  de  Militar,”  or  military  dic¬ 
tators. 

Having  thus  dethroned  the  legitimate  ruler,  Guardia  pro¬ 
claimed  himself  Military  Dictator,  and  called  a  Junta,  com¬ 
posed  of  the  men  who  had  employed  him  to  overthrow  the 
Government.  They  met,  with  great  formality,  and  solemnly 
issued  a  proclamation,  reciting  that  the  Constitutional  Presi¬ 
dent  having  absented  himself  from  the  country  without  des¬ 
ignating  any  one  to  act  in  his  place,  it  became  necessary 
to  choose  a  new  Chief  Magistrate.  In  the  mean  time  the 
Junta  declared  Guardia  Provisional  President  until  an  elec¬ 
tion  could  be  held.  The  latter  took  possession  of  the  Execu¬ 
tive  Mansion,  called  all  the  people  into  the  plaza,  swore  them 
to  support  him,  reorganized  the  bureaus  of  the  Government 
and  the  army,  placing  the  cow-boys  who  had  come  up  from 
Guanacasta  with  him  in  charge.  The  father-in-law  of  the 
English  banker  who  suggested  the  revolution  was  announced 
as  the  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  and  it  was  expected  that 
he  would  be  chosen  without  opposition.  But  General  Guar¬ 
dia,  having  had  a  taste  of  power,  thought  more  of  the  same 
would  be  agreeable,  and  passed  the  word  quietly  around 
among  his  oflicers  that  he  was  a  candidate  himself.  As  they 
constituted  the  judges  of  election  and  the  returning  board, 
this  hint  was  sufficient,  and  when  the  returns  began  to  come 
in  after  election  day,  the  banker  and  his  co-conspirators 
found,  to  their  surprise  and  chagrin,  that  their  tool  had  be¬ 
come  their  master,  and  General  Guardia  was  declared  Consti¬ 
tutional  President  by  a  unanimous  vote,  only  two  thousand 
ballots  having  been  cast  by  a  population  of  two  hundred 
thousand. 

This  cow-boy,  when  he  took  his  seat,  could  neither  read  nor 
write.  He  was,  however,  a  man  of  extraordinary  natural  abil¬ 
ity,  gifted  with  brains  and  a  laudable  ambition.  He  sprang 


208 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


from  a  mixture  of  the  Spanish  and  native  races,  had  energy, 
shrewdness,  a  cool  head,  and  a  fair  idea  of  government :  in 
all  respects  the  most  remarkable,  and  in  many  respects  the 
greatest  man  the  little  republic  ever  produced.  He  learned 
rapidly,  and  selected  the  wisest  and  ablest  men  in  the  country 
for  his  advisers.  Under  his  administration  the  nation  showed 
gre.ater  development  than  it  has  enjoyed  before  or  since,  and, 
so  far  as  lay  in  his  power,  he  introduced  and  encouraged 
a  spirit  of  moral,  intellectual,  and  commercial  advancement, 
established  free  schools  and  a  university,  overthrew  the  domi¬ 
nation  of  the  priests,  sent  young  men  abroad  to  study  the 
science  of  government,  and  preserved  the  peace  as  he  aided 
the  progress  of  the  people.  If  he  had  been  as  wise  as  he  was 
progressive,  Costa  Rica  would  have  made  rapid  strides  tow¬ 
ards  the  standard  of  modern  civilization,  but  in  his  mistaken 
zeal  for  the  development  of  the  country  lie  left  it  bankrupt. 

The  two  railroads  were  commenced  by  him.  Under  the 
estimates  of  the  engineers  the  cost  of  construction  and  equip¬ 
ment  for  two  narrow-gauge  lines,  from  San  Jose  to  Port  Li- 
mon,  on  the  Atlantic  coast,' and  Punta  Arenas,  on  the  Pacific, 
a  total  distance  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  was  placed  at 
86,000,000 — 837,500  per  mile.  The  line  from  Port  Limon  was 
constructed  under  the  direction  of  a  brother  of  Henry  Meiggs, 
the  famous  fugitive  from  California  (who  fled  to  Peru,  and 
lived  there  like  a  second  Monte  Cnsto),  but  the  shorter  fine, 
from  San  Jose  to  Punta  Arenas,  Avas  attempted  under  the  per¬ 
sonal  supervision  of  the  President  himself,  Avho  went  at  it  in  a 
very  queer  way. 

All  the  necessary  material  and  supplies  to  build  and  equip 
the  road  were  purchased  in  England,  sent  by  sailing-vessels 
around  the  Horn,  and  landed  at  Punta  Arenas.  But  instead 
of  commencing  work  there,  the  President,  Avho  had  never  seen 
a  locomotive  in  his  life,  repudiated  all  advice,  rejected  all  sug¬ 
gestions,  and  ordered  the  Avhole  outfit  to  be  carried  seventy- 
fi\Te  miles  over  the  mountains  on  carts  and  mule-back,  so  as 
to  begin  at  the  other  end.  This  undertaking  was  more  diffi- 
cult  and  expensfr^e  than  the  construction  of  the  road.  But 


SAN  JOSE. 


211 


Guarclia’s  extraordinary  departure  from  the  conventional  was 
not  without  reason.  It  was  based  upon  a  mixture  of  motives, 
not  only  ignorance  and  inexperience,  but  pride  and  precau¬ 
tion.  The  conservative  element  of  the  population,  the  Bour¬ 
bon  hidalgos,  and  the  ignorant  and  the  superstitious  peons, 
were  opposed  to  all  departures  from  the  past,  and  saw  in 
every  improvement  and  innovation  a  dangerous  disturbance 
of  existing  conditions.  The  methods  their  fathers  used  were 
good  enough  for  them.  There  was  also  a  large  amount  of 
capital  and  labor  engaged  in  transporting  freight  by  ox-carts, 
which  had  always  been  the  “  common  carriers  ”  of  the  repub¬ 
lic,  and  those  interested  recognized  that  the  construction  of 
the  railway  would  make  their  cattle  useless,  and  leave  the 
peon  carters  unemployed.  To  resist  the  construction  of  the 
railroad  they  organized  a  revolution,  threatening  to  tear  up 
the  tracks  and  destroy  the  machinery.  To  mollify  this  senti¬ 
ment,  and  furnish  employment  for  the  cartmen  to  keep  them 
out  of  mischief,  was  the  controlling  idea  in  Guardia’s  mind,  so 
with  great  labor  and  difficulty,  and  at  an  enormous  expense, 
the  locomotives  and  cars  were  taken  to  pieces  and  hauled 
over  the  mountains  to  San  Jose.  The  first  rails  were  laid  at 
the  capital  by  the  President  himself,  with  a  great  demonstra¬ 
tion,  and  the  work  continued  until  the  money  was  exhaust¬ 
ed  ;  and  the  Government,  having  destroyed  its  credit  by  this 
remarkable  proceeding,  was  unable  to  borrow  more.  The 
loan,  which  under  ordinary  circumstances  would  have  been 
sufficient  to  complete  the  enterprise,  was  all  expended  before 
forty  miles  of  track  were  laid,  ten  miles  of  which  extend 
between  Punta  Arenas,  the  Pacific  seaport,  and  Esparza,  the 
next  town,  and  thirty  miles  between  San  Jose  and  Alajuela, 
at  the  western  end  of  the  valley.  This  road  is  now  operated 
by  the  Government,  under  the  direction  of  a  native  engineer, 
who  was  never  outside  the  boundaries  of  the  republic,  and 
never  saw  any  railway  but  this.  He  is,  however,  a  man  of 
genius  and  practical  ability,  and  if  he  were  allowed  to  have 
his  way  the  road  might  be  a  paying  enterprise.  But  the 
Government  uses  it  as  a  political  machine,  employs  a  great 


212 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


many  superfluous  and  incompetent  men — mostly  the  relatives 
and  dependents  of  influential  politicians — carries  freight  and 
passengers  on  credit,  and  does  many  other  foolish  thing's  that 
make  profits  impossible,  and  cause  a  large  deficiency  to  be 
made  up  by  taxation  each  year.  On  every  train  of  three  cars 
— one  for  baggage  and  two  for  passengers — are  thirteen  men. 
First  a  manager  or  conductor  who  has  general  supervision,  a 
locomotive  engineer  and  stoker,  two  ticket  takers,  two  brake- 
men  for  each  car,  and  two  men  to  handle  baggage  and  express 
packages— all  of  them  being  arrayed  in  the  most  resplendent 
uniforms,  the  conductor  having  the  appearance  of  a  major- 
general  on  dress  parade.  Freight  trains  are  run  upon  the 
same  system  and  at  a  similar  expense.  Shippers  are  allowed 
thirty  and  sixty  days  after  the  goods  are  delivered  to  pay 
their  freight  charges,  and  passengers  who  are  known  to  the 
station  agents  can  get  tickets  on  credit  and  have  the  bill  sent 
them  upon  their  return — a  concession  to  a  public  sentiment 
that  justifies  the  postponement  of  everything  until  to-morrow 
— the  man  ana  policy  that  keeps  the  nation  poor. 

Thousands  of  ox-carts  are  still  employed  between  the  towns 
of  Esparza  and  Alajuela,  the  termini  of  the  railway,  carrying 
freight  over  the  mountains ;  and  it  usually  takes  a  week  for 
them  to  make  the  journey  of  thirty-five  miles,  often  longer, 
for  on  religious  festivals,  which  occur  with  surprising  frequen¬ 
cy,  all  the  transportation  business  is  suspended.  A  traveller 
who  intends  to  take  a  steamer  at  Punta  Arenas  must  send  his 
bao'o'ao-e  on  a  week  in  advance.  He  leaves  the  train  at  Ala- 

oo  o 

juela,  mounts  a  mule,  rides  over  the  mountain  to  the  town  of 
Atenas,  where  he  spends  the  night.  The  next  morning  at 
daybreak  he  resumes  his  journey,  and  rides  fifteen  miles  to 
San  Mateo,  breakfasts  at  eleven,  takes  his  siesta  in  a  ham¬ 
mock  until  four  or  five  in  the  afternoon,  then  mounting  his 
mule  again,  covers  the  ten  miles  to  Esparza  by  sunset,  where 
he  dines  and  spends  the  night,  usually  remaining  there,  to 
avoid  the  heat  of  Punta  Arenas,  until  a  few  hours  before  the 
steamer  leaves ;  and  then,  if  the  ox-carts  have  come  with  his 
baggage,  makes  the  rest  of  his  trip  by  rail. 


SAN  JOSfi. 


>213 


The  journey  is  not  an  unpleasant  one.  The  scenery  is  wild 
and  picturesque.  The  roads  are  usually  good,  except  in  the 
dry  season,  when  they  become  very  dusty,  and  after  heavy 
rains,  when  the  mud  is  deep.  But  under  the  tropic  sun  and 
in  the  dry  air  moisture  evaporates  rapidly,  and  in  six  hours 
after  a  rainfall  the  roads  are  hard  and  good.  The  uncertainty 
as  to  whether  his  trunks  will  arrive  in  time  makes  the  inex. 
perienced  traveller  nervous. 

The  Costa -Rican  cartmen  are  the  most  irresponsible  and 
indifferent  beings  on  earth.  They  travel  in  long  caravans  or 
processions,  often  with  two  or  three  hundred  teams  in  a  line. 
When  one  chooses  to  stop,  or  meets  with  an  accident,  all  the 
rest  wait  for  him  if  it  wastes  a  week.  Rone  will  start  until 
each  of  his  companions  is  ready,  and  sometimes  the  road  is 
blocked  for  miles,  awaiting  the  repair  of  some  damage.  The 
oxen  are  large  white  patient  beasts,  and  are  yoked  by  the 
horns,  and  not  by  the  neck,  as  in  modem  style,  lashings  of 
raw  cowhide  being  used  to  make  them  fast.  They  wear  the 
yokes  continually.  The  union  is  as  permanent  as  matrimony 
in  a  land  where  divorce  laws  are  unknown.  The  cartmen  are 
as  courteous  as  they  are  indifferent.  They  always  lift  their 
hats  to  a  caballero  as  he  passes  them,  and  say,  “May  the 
Virgin  guard  you  on  your  journey !”  Thousands  of  dollars  in 
gold  are  often  intrusted  to  them,  and  never  was  a  penny  lost. 
A  banker  of  San  Jose  told  me  that  he  usually  received  thirty 
thousand  dollars  in  coin  each  week  during  coffee  season  by 
these  ox -carts,  and  considered  it  safer  than  if  he  carried  it 
himself,  although  the  caravan  stands  in  the  open  air  by  the 
roadside  every  night.  Highway  robbery  is  unknown,  and 
the  cartmen,  with  their  wages  of  thirty  cents  a  day,  would 
not  know  what  use  to  make  of  the  money  if  they  should 
steal  it.  Nevertheless  they  always  feel  at  liberty  to  rob  the 
traveller  of  the  straps  on  his  trunks,  and  no  piece  of  baggage 
ever  arrives  at  its  destination  so  protected  unless  the  strap  is 
securely  nailed,  and  then  it  is  usually  cut  to  pieces  by  the  cart¬ 
men  as  revenge  for  being  deprived  of  what  they  consider 
their  perquisite. 


214 


T1IE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


At  sunset  the  oxen  are  released  from  their  burdens  at 
the  nearest  tambo ,  or  resting-place,  upon  the  way,  and  are 
kept  overnight  in  sheds  provided  for  them.  At  these  places 
are  drinking  and  gambling  booths,  with  usually  a  number  of 
dissolute  women  to  tempt  and  entertain  the  cartmen.  The 
evenings  are  spent  in  carousal,  in  dancing,  and  singing  the 
peculiar  native  songs  to  the  accompaniment  of  the  “ma¬ 
rimba,”  the  national  instrument,  which  is,  I  believe,  found  in 
no  other  land. 

The  marimba  is  constructed  of  twenty-one  pieces  of  split 
bamboo  of  graded  lengths,  strung  upon  two  bars  of  the  same 
wood  according  to  harmonic  sequence,  thus  furnishing  three 
octaves.  Underneath  each  strip  of  bamboo  is  a  gourd,  strung 
upon  a  wire,  which  takes  the  place  of  a  sounding-board,  and 
.adds  strength  and  sweetness  to  the  tones.  The  performer 
takes  the  instrument  upon  his  knees  and  strikes  the  bamboo 
strips  with  little  hammers  of  padded  leather,  usually  taking 
two  between  the  fingers  of  each  hand,  so  as  to  strike  a  chord 
of  four  notes,  which  he  does  with  great  dexterity.  I  have 
seen  men  play  with  three  hammers  in  each  hand,  and  use 
them  as  rapidly  and  skilfully  as  a  pianist  touches  his  keys. 
The  tones  of  the  marimba  resemble  those  of  the  xylophone, 
which  has  recently  become  so  popular,  except  that  they 
are  louder  and  more  resonant.  The  instrument  is  peculiarly 
adapted  to  the  native  airs,  which  are  plaintive  but  melodious. 
At  all  of  the  tambos  where  the  cartmen  stop  marimbas  are 
kept,  and  in  every  caravan  are  those  who  can  handle  them 
skilfully.  Tourists  generally  travel  in  the  cool  hours  of  the 
morning  and  evening  to  avoid  the  blistering  sun,  and  it  is 
a  welcome  diversion  to  stop  at  the  bodegas  to  listen  to  the 
songs  of  the  cartmen,  and  watch  them  dancing  with  dark- 
eyed,  barefooted  senoritas. 

The  women  of  the  lower  classes  do  not  wear  either  shoes 
or  sandals,  but  go  barefooted  from  infancy  to  old  age ;  yet 
their  feet  are  always  small  and  shapely,  and  look  very  pretty 
under  the  short  skirts  that  reach  just  below  the  knees.  The 
native  girls  are  comely  and  coquettish  in  the  national  dress, 


SAN  JOSE. 


215 


which  consists  of  nothing  but  a  skirt  and  a  chemise  of  white 
cotton,  with  a  brilliantly  colored  scarf,  or  “  reboza,”  as  they 
call  it,  thrown  over  their  heads  and  shoulders,  and  serving  the 
double  purpose  of  a  shawl  and  bonnet.  The  features  of  the 
women  are  small  and  even,  and  their  teeth  are  perfect.  Their 
forms,  untrammelled  by  skirts  and  corsets,  are  slender  and 
supple  in  girlhood,  and  the  scanty  garments,  sleeveless,  and 
*  reaching  only  from  the  shoulders  to  the  knees,  disclose  every 


THE  MARIMBA. 


216 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


outline  of  their  figures,  and  are  worn  without  a  suggestion 
of  immodesty.  Such  a  costume  in  the  L  nited  States  \\  ould 
call  for  police  interference  ;  but  one  soon  becomes  accustomed 
to  bare  arms  and  necks  and  legs,  and  learns  that  these  inno¬ 
cent  creatures  are  quite  as  jealous  of  their  chastity  as  their 
sisters  in  the  land  where  the  standard  of  civ  ilization  forbids 
the  disclosure  of  personal  charms  outside  the  ball-room  or 
the  bathing  beach.  The  ladies  of  the  aristocracy  imitate  the 
Parisian  fashions,  except  that  hats  and  bonnets  are  almost 
unknown.  They  seldom  leave  their  homes  except  to  go  to 
mass,  and  at  the  entrance  of  a  church  every  head  must  be 
uncovered. 

There  is  not  a  millinery  store  in  the  land.  Every  woman 
wears  a  u  reboza  ”  of  a  texture  suitable  to  her  rank  and 
Wealth,  and  as  it  is  not  considered  proper  to  expose  their 
faces  in  public,  the  scarf  is  generally  drawn  over  the  feat¬ 
ures  so  as  to  conceal  all  but  their  ravishing  eyes.  And  it  is 
well  that  this  is  so,  for  they  plaster  their  faces  with  a  com¬ 
position  of  magnesia  and  the  whites  of  eggs  that  gives  them 
a  ghastly  appearance,  and  effectually  conceals,  as  it  ultimately 
destroys,  the  freshness  and  purity  of  their  complexions.  This 
stuff  is  renewed  at  frequent  intervals,  and  is  never  v  ashed  off. 

There  is  a  popular  prejudice  against  bathing.  A  man  who 
has  been  on  a  journey  will  not  wash  the  dust  off  his  face  fox 
several  days  after  arrival,  particularly  if  he  has  come  from  a 
lower  to  a  highei'  altitude,  as  it  is  believed  that  the  opening 
of  the  pores  of  the  skin  is  certain  to  bring  on  a  fever. 

While  passing  over  a  dusty  road  upon  a  hot,  sultry  day  I 
dismounted  at  a  foaming  brook,  rolled  up  my  sleeves,  and 
commenced  to  bathe  my  head  and  face  and  arms.  The  guide 
who  was  with  me  cried  “  Caramba !”  in  astonishment,  and 
tried  to  pull  me  away.  When  I  demanded  an  explanation 
of  his  extraordinary  behavior  he  begged  me  for  the  love  of 
the  Virgin  not  to  wash  my  face,  for  I  would  certainly  come 
down  with  the  fever  the  next  day.  I  smiled  at  this  remon¬ 
strance,  and  gave  myself  a  refreshing  bath,  while  he  looked 
on  as  solemnly  as  if  I  intended  to  commit  suicide.  For  an 


SAN  JOSfi. 


217 


COFFEE-DRYING. 

hour  after,  as  we  travelled  on,  he  muttered  prayers  to  the 
Virgin  and  his  patron  saint  to  protect  me  from  the  fever, 
and  to-day  no  doubt  believes  that  I  was  saved  by  the  inter¬ 
position  of  Divine  power  in  answer  to  his  petitions.  He 
afterwards  reproached  me  for  not  having  made  a  vow 
because  of  my  remarkable  deliverance. 

However,  if  anybody  supposes  that  the  inhabitants  of  the 
little  republic  are  uncouth,  unmannerly,  or  uneducated,  he 


218 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


makes  a  great  mistake.  They  are  quite  up  to  our  standard 
of  intelligence,  and  although  education  is  not  so  universal  as 
in  this  country,  the  leading  families  of  Costa  Rica  are  as  cul¬ 
tivated  as  our  own.  They  surpass  us  in  social  graces,  in  con¬ 
versational  powers,  in  linguistic  and  other  accomplishments. 
They  have  keener  perceptions  than  we,  are  more  carefully 
observant  of  the  nicer  proprieties,  can  usually  speak  one  or 
two  languages  besides  their  own  fluently,  and  have  a  culti¬ 
vated  taste  for  music  and  the  arts.  No  Costa-Rican  lady  or 
gentleman  is  ever  embarrassed ;  they  always  know  how  to 
do  and  say  the  proper  thing,  and  while  in  many  cases  their 
sympathetic  interest  in  your  welfare  may  be  only  skin-deep, 
and  their  affectionate  phrases  insincere,  they  are  nevertheless 
the  most  hospitable  of  hosts  and  the  most  charming  of  com¬ 
panions.  In  commerce  as  well  as  in  society  this  deportment  is 
universal ;  in  their  stores  and  offices  they  are  as  polite  as  in 
their  parlors,  and  the  same  manners  are  found  in  every  caste. 
No  laborer  ever  passes  a  lady  in  the  street  without  lifting 
his  hat ;  every  gentleman  is  respectfully  saluted,  whether  he 
be  a  stranger  or  an  acquaintance,  and  in  the  rural  districts 
whoever  you  meet  says,  “  May  the  Virgin  prosper  you !”  or 
“  May  Heaven  smile  upon  your  errand !”  or  “  May  your  pa¬ 
tron  saint  protect  you  from  all  harm !”  He  may  not  care  a 
straw  whether  you  reach  the  end  of  your  journey  or  not, 
and  may  not  have  any  more  regard  for  your  welfare  than 
the  fleas  on  his  coat,  and  if  you  ask  him  how  far  it  is  to  the 
next  place  he  will  tell  you  a  falsehood,  but  he  recognizes 
and  practises  the  beautiful  custom  of  the  country,  and  sa3Ts, 
“  God  be  with  you !”  as  if  he  intended  it  as  a  blessing. 

The  Government  supports  a  good  university  at  San  Jose, 
under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Juan  F.  Ferras,  and  a  system  of 
free  graded  schools,  managed  by  the  Minister  of  Education, 
who  is  a  member  of  the  cabinet.  Education  is  compulsory, 
the  law  requiring  the  attendance  of  all  children  between  the 
ages  of  eight  and  fourteen ;  and  it  is  enforced,  except  in  the 
sparsely  settled  districts  where  the  schools  are  infrequent. 
Those  who  send  their  children  to  private  schools,  or  do  not 


SAN  JOSfi. 


219 


send  them  at  all,  are  subject  to  a  heavy  fine,  which  goes  into 
the  school  fund.  There  is  also  a  poll-tax  for  the  support  of  the 
educational  system.  The  schools  are  entirely  free  from  sec¬ 
tarian  influences.  In  fact,  both  the  Minister  of  Education  and 
the  Director  of  the  University  belong  to  the  German  school 
of  materialists,  towards  which  all  men  of  education  in  these 
countries  drift  wrhen  they  leave  the  Mother  Church.  There  is 
no  other  place  for  them  to  go.  The  Protestants  in  San  Jose 
have  a  little  chapel  where  the  Church  of  England  service  is 
recited,  hymns  are  sung,  and  usually  Sabbath  mornings  a 
selected  sermon  from  some  published  volume  is  read  by  a  lay 
member ;  but  the  flock  is  too  small  to  support  a  pastor,  and 
none  of  the  missionary  societies  in  England  or  America  appear 
to  care  to  enter  the  field.  During  the  administration  of  Presi¬ 
dent  Guardia  there  was  a  constitutional  amendment  adopted 
separating  the  Church  and  the  State.  The  monks  and  nuns 
were  expelled  from  the  country,  the  monasteries  and  nunner¬ 
ies  confiscated,  and  by  legislation  the  priests  were  deprived  of 
much  of  their  power  and  perquisites.  In  1884,  a  few  months 
before  his  death,  the  late  President  Fernandez  expelled  the 
archbishop  from  the  country.  The  latter  went  to  him  demand¬ 
ing  a  voice  in  the  management  of  the  university,  and  a  share 
of  the  public  funds  for  the  use  of  the  Catholic  Theological 
Seminary.  The  controversy  was  heated,  and  when  the  arch¬ 
bishop  departed  from  the  Presidential  mansion  he  left  the 
curse  of  Rome  behind  him.  Fernandez,  hearing  that  his  Grace 
was  talking  about  a  revolution,  sent  him  a  passport  and  a  file 
of  soldiers  to  escort  him  out  of  the  country,  to  which  he  has 
not  been  allowed  to  return. 

The  confessional  is  open  and  public  by  law,  and  the  priests 
are  forbidden  to  wTear  their  vestments  in  the  streets.  But 
these  statutes  are  not  enforced,  and,  regardless  of  the  offensive 
attitude  of  the  Government,  the  devotion  of  the  masses  to  the 
Church  is  quite  as  marked  as  in  any  ofjthe  Catholic  coun¬ 
tries.  The  intelligent  families,  however,  are  gradually  grow¬ 
ing  unmindful  of  their  ancestral  religion,  and  the  next  gener¬ 
ation  will  see  a  more  rapid  decline  of  the  power  of  the  priests. 


220 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Business  ancl  professional  men  never  attend  mass,  leaving  that 
duty  to  their  wives  and  daughters  and  servants.  They  are 
seldom  seen  inside  a  church,  except  upon  occasions  of  cere¬ 
mony  or  at  funerals.  But  the  women  invariably  attend  mass 

each  morning.  . 

A  familiar  sight  in  Costa  Itica  is  a  death  procession.  W  hen 
some  one  is  dying  the  friends  send  for  a  priest  to  shrive  him. 
The  latter  comes,  not  silently  and  solemnly,  a  minister  of  giace 
and  consolation,  hut  accompanied  by  a  brass  band,  if  the  fam- 
ilv  are  rich  enough  to  pay  for  it  (the  priest  receiving  a  liberal 
commission  on  the  business),  or,  if  they  are  poor,  by  a  number 
of  boys  ringing  bells  and  chanting  hymns.  Behind  the  band 
or  bell-boys  are  two  acolytes,  one  bearing  a  crucifix  and  the 
other  swinging  an  incense  urn.  Then  follows  the  priest  in  a 
wooden  box  or  chair,  covered  by  a  canopy,  and  carried  by 
four  men  wearing  the  sacramental  vestments,  and  holding  m 
his  hand,  covered  with  a  napkin,  the  Host  — the  emblem 
of  the  body  of  Christ.  People  upon  the  streets  kneel  as  the 
procession  passes,  and  then  follow  it.  Reaching  the  house 
of  the  dying,  the  band  or  bell-ringers  stand  outside,  making 
all  the  disturbance  they  can,  while  the  priest,  followed  by  a 
motley  rabble,  enters  the  death-chamber,  administers  the  sac¬ 
rament,  and  confesses1  the  dying  soul.  Then  the  procession 
returns  to  the  church  as  it  came.  Going  and  coming,  and 
while  at  the  house,  the  band  plays  or  the  beds  are  rung  con¬ 
stantly,  and  all  the  men,  women,  and  children  within  hear- 
ino-  fall  upon  their  knees,  whether  in  the  street  or  at  then- 
labor,  and  pray  for  the  repose  of  the  departing  spirit. 

Funerals  are  occasions  of  great  ceremony.  Notices,  or '  avi¬ 
sos,  as  they  are  called,  are  printed  and  posted  upon  ah  of  the 
dead-walls,  like  announcements  of  an  auction  or  an  opera,  ant 
printed  invitations  are  sent  to  all  the  acquaintances  of  the 
deceased.  The  priests  charge  a  large  fee  for  attendance,  pro¬ 
portionate  to  the  means  of  the  family,  ancl  when  they  are  poor 
it  is  common  for  some  one  to  solicit  contributions  to  pay  it. 
The  spectacle  of  a  beggar  sitting  at  a  street  corner  asking 
alms  to  pay  the  burial  fee  of  his  wife  or  child  is  a  very  com- 


SAN  JOSfi. 


221 


mon  one,  and  quite  as  often  one  can  see  a  father  carrying  in 
his  arms  to  the  cemetery  the  coffin  of  a  little  one,  not  being 
able  to  pay  for  a  priest  and  a  carriage  too. 

The  number  of  illegitimate  births  in  the  country  is  ac¬ 
counted  for,  not  so  much  by  a  low  state  of  morals  as  by  the 
enormous  fees  exacted  by  the  priests  for  performing  mar¬ 
riage  ceremonies.  Unfortunately  the  Government  has  not 
yet  established  the  civil  rite,  as  is  the  case  in  several  of  the 
Spanish -American  States.  It  takes  all  a  peon  can  earn  in 
three  months  to  pay  the  priest  that  officiates  at  his  nuptials. 

The  Government  of  Costa  Rica  consists  of  a  President,  two 
Vice-Presidents,  who  are  named  by  the  President,  and  are 
called  Designado  Primero  and  Designado  Segundo  (the  first 
and  second  designated).  They  have  authority  to  act  in  the 
place  of  the  President  in  case  of  his  absence  from  the  seat  of 
government,  or  in  the  event  of  his  death  or  disability,  and  he 
is  responsible  for  their  official  conduct. 

There  is  a  Congress,  consisting  of  a  Senate  of  twelve  mem¬ 
bers  and  a  Chamber  of  Deputies  of  twenty -four,  elected  bien¬ 
nially,  as  in  the  United  States.  Also  a  Council  of  six  men, 
selected  from  the  Congress  by  the  President,  who  act  as  a 
sort  of  cabinet  and  Supreme  Court  combined.  They  are  con¬ 
tinually  in  session,  have  power  to  review  the  decisions  of  the 
courts,  to  reverse  or  affirm  them,  to  issue  decrees  which  have 
the  force  of  law  until  the  next  session  of  the  Congress,  to  audit 
the  accounts  of  the  Treasury,  and  perform  various  other  acts. 
This  Council  is  confirmed  by  the  Congress,  and  is  supposed  to 
act  as  a  check  upon  the  President  and  the  judiciary.  The 
President  has  a  cabinet  of  two  members,  appointed  by  him¬ 
self,  and  they  are  usually  the  two  Vice-Presidents,  or  Desi- 
gnados.  To  one  he  will  assign  the  duty  of  looking  after  for¬ 
eign  affairs  and  the  finances  of  the  Government,  while  the 
other  will  have  the  army,  the  educational  system,  and  other 
internal  affairs  to  manage. 

The  successor  of  the  famous  cow-boy  President,  Guardia, 
was  his  brother-in-law,  General  Prospero  Fernandez,  one  of 
his  lieutenants  in  the  revolution  by  which  he  came  into  power, 


222 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  who  was  made  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  of  two 
hundred  and  fifty  men  when  Guardia  took  the  Executive  chair. 
He  was  a  man  of  fine  appearance,  but  of  dull  and  slow  mental 
powers,  spending  most  of  his  time  upon  his  hacienda,  or  plan¬ 
tation,  and  leaving  the  affairs  of  the  State  to  his  secretaries, 
Don  Jesus  Maria  Castro  and  Don  Bernardo  de  Soto.  Fernan¬ 
dez  died  before  the  expiration  of  his  term,  in  the  spring  of 


DON  BERNARDO  DE  SOTO,  PRESIDENT  OF  COSTA  RICA. 


1SS5,  and  was  succeeded  by  De  Soto,  a  young  man  of  whom 
much  is  expected.  He  was  a  pet  and  protege  of  the  great 
Guardia,  and  after  graduating  at  the  University  of  San  Jose 
was  sent  to  Europe  to  complete  his  education,  and  by  a  study 
of  the  world  as  well  as  books  to  qualify  himself  to  succeed 
his  patron  in  the  Presidential  chair.  Guardia  died,  however, 


SAN  JOSfi. 


223 


before  De  Soto  had  reached  the  age  that  made  him  eligible  to 
the  Presidency,  and  Fernandez  stepped  in  to  fill  the  interim. 
He  conscientiously  acted  as  a  sort  of  trustee  or  executor  of 
Guardia’s  will,  and  made  the  young  man,  then  only  twenty- 
seven,  his  Minister  of  War,  Education,  and  Public  Works. 
When  Fernandez  died  De  Soto  assumed  the  Presidency,  just 
as  if  he  had  inherited  a  crown,  there  being  no  other  candidate. 
The  President  has  just  passed  his  thirtieth  birthday,  and  com¬ 
mands  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the  pepple. 

Costa  Rica  was  the  first  discovered  of  all  the  countries  on 
this  Continent,  but  of  its  resources  the  least  is  known.  The 
Cordilleras  of  the  Andes  pass  through  the  republic  from  the 
south-east  to  the  north-west.  South  of  Cartago  they  divide 
into  two  ranges,  one  running  up  the  Pacific  coast,  and  the 
other  tending  towards  the  Atlantic  until  it  is  broken  off  at 
Lake  Nicaragua.  These  ranges  not  only  enclose  rich  valleys, 
in  the  chief  of  which  is  San  Jose,  but  along  their  slopes  on 
either  side  are  extensive  tracts  of  land  already  cleared  and 
abounding  in  fertility.  Along  the  coast  are  large  areas  of 
jungle  and  plains  of  more  or  less  extent,  only  slightly  devel¬ 
oped  because  of  the  malarious  atmosphere.  The  Pacific  coast 
is  healthier  and  more  thickly  settled.  A  large  prairie  covers 
the  northern  part  of  the  republic,  upon  which  many  cattle  are 
grazed,  and  it  extends  over  the  Nicaragua  boundary.  In  the 
north-eastern  corner  is  an  extensive  forest,  inhabited  by  bands 
of  roaming  Indians,  and  full  of  the  most  valuable  timber. 

What  the  country  needs  is  enterprise  and  capital,  and  these 
it  must  secure  by  immigration.  The  population  has  increased 
somewhat  during  the  last  half  century,  but  entirely  from  nat¬ 
ural  causes,  as  more  people  have  moved  away  than  have  come 
in  to  settle.  No  attempt  has  been  made  by  the  Government 
to  attract  immigrants  until  recently,  for  years  ago  the  con¬ 
servative  element  of  the  population  were  opposed  to  inviting 
strangers  into  their  midst.  This  sentiment  has,  however,  died 
out,  and  there  is  an  increasing  desire  to  do  something  to  call 
in  capital  and  labor. 

The  staple  products  of  the  country  are  coffee,  corn,  sugar, 


221 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


cocoa,  bananas,  and  other  tropical  fruits,  but  only  cotfee  and 
bananas  are  exported  in  any  quantity.  The  increase  in  the 
coffee  crop  has  been  very  large,  the  product  in  1850  being 
fourteen  million  pounds,  while  in  1881  it  was  over  forty  mill¬ 
ion.  The  quality  is  said  to  be  superior  to  that  grown  else¬ 
where,  and  the  yield  greater  in  proportion  to  the  number  of 
trees.  England  and  France  take  the  greater  share  of  the 
crop,  the  exports  to  the  United  States  reaching  only  eight 
million  five  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  1881.  The  land  is 
practically  free,  for  the  Government  sells  it  at  a  nominal  price 
per  acre,  and  allows  long  time  for  payment.  Quite  a  number 
of  settlers  from  the  United  States  and  the  "West  Indies  have 
come  in  recently  and  located  on  the  line  of  the  eastern  road, 
which  is  to  connect  Port  Limon,  on  the  Atlantic,  with  the 
interior. 


Note  to  Second  Edition.-Oh  the  29th  and  30th  of  December,  1888, 
Costa  Rica  was  visited  by  the  most  destructive  earthquake  ever  known  there. 
Nearly  all  the  cities  and  settlements  suffered  more  or  less,  but  San  Jose  was 
almost  entirely  destroyed.  Three-fourths  of  the  buildings  were  either  shaken 
down  or  shattered  beyond  repair,  including  all  the  official  structures,  the  Cap¬ 
itol  the  President’s  residence,  and  the  Cathedral.  The  loss  to  the  Govern¬ 
ment  alone  is  estimated  at  $2,000,000,  while  that  suffered  by  private  individ¬ 
uals  was  several  times  that  amount.  No  official  report  upon  the  loss  of  life 
has  been  made,  and  the  estimates  vary  from  three  hundred  to  seven  bundled 

and  fifty. 


BOGOTA. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  COLOMBIA. 


Although  geographically  one  of  our  nearest  neighbors, 
Bogota,  the  capital  of  the  United  States  of  Colombia,  is  al¬ 
most  as  far  distant  by  days,  if  not  by  miles,  from  New  York 
as  the  interior  of  India,  and  quite  as  difficult  to  reach.  Until 
recently  there  has  been  no  direct  communication  by  steam 
between  the  ports  of  Colombia  and  those  of  our  own  country. 
Within  the  last  three  years  an  English  company  has  estab¬ 
lished  a  line  of  steamships  between  Hew  York  and  the  mouth 
of  the  Magdalena  River.  Two  trips  a  month  are  made,  the 
vessels  touching  at  several  of  the  West  India  ports  en  route, 
and  making  the  voyage  to  Barranquilla  in  fifteen  days. 
Three  times  a  month  the  Pacific  Mail  steamers  leave  Hew 
York  for  Aspinwall,  where  a  steamer  for  the  Colombian  ports 
and  Europe  sails  almost  every  day,  under  the  flag  of  Eng¬ 
land,  Germany,  France,  Spain,  Italy,  or  the  Netherlands.  The 
voyage  via  Aspinwall  requires  about  the  same  time  as  the 
other,  fifteen  days.  There  ought  to  be  direct  communication 
not  only  from  Hew  York,  but  from  the  Gulf  ports,  as  the 
demands  of  commerce  require  it ;  and  a  much  larger  trade 
might  be  obtained  if  conveniences  of  transportation  existed. 
But  the  policy  of  the  United  Stated  Congress  in  refusing  to 
aid  steamship  lines,  even  by  the  payment  of  reasonable  com¬ 
pensation  for  the  carriage  of  mails,  prohibits  capitalists  from 
investing  money  in  such  enterprises,  as  they  would  be  com¬ 
pelled  to  compete  with  the  subsidized  companies  of  Europe. 

Excepting  Aspinwall,  which  is  a  cosmopolitan  place,  the 
city  of  Barranquilla  is  the  principal  port  of  Colombia,  and  to 
it  all  merchandise  and  passengers  bound  for  Bogota  and  the 
15 


220 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


interior  of  the  country  must  go.  In  the  olcl  Spanish  colony 
times  Carthagena  was  the  greatest  commercial  metropolis  of 
Colombia,  or  New  Granada,  as  it  was  then  called ;  and  it  is 


BARRANQUILLA. 


one  of  the  quaintest,  as  it  is  one  of  the  oldest,  cities  in  South 
America.  In  the  time  of  Philip  the  Second  it  was  the  most 
strongly  fortified  place  on  the  continent,  and  the  headquar¬ 
ters  of  the  Spanish  naval  forces  in  the  New  World.  It  was 
the  rendezvous  of  the  Spanish  galleons  which  came  to  South 
America  for  treasure.  There  are  many  rich  mines  in  the 
mountains  back  of  the  city,  which  have  produced  millions  in 
silver  and  gold.  Here  came  the  pirates  to  plunder.  They 
committed  so  much  damage  that  the  King  of  Spain  thought 
it  worth  his  while  to  build  a  wall  around  the  entire  city,  on 
the  top  of  which  forty  horses  can  walk  abreast,  and  which  is 
said  to  have  cost  ninety  million  dollars. 

Carthagena  was  the  seat  of  the  Inquisition,  and  in  Charles 
Kingsley’s  novel,  “Westward  Ho!”  its  readers  will  find  a 
charming  description  of  the  place.  It  was  here  that  Frank 
and  the  Rose  of  Devon  were  imprisoned  by  the  priests,  and 
the  old  Inquisition  building  in  which  they  were  tortured  and 
burned  is  still  standing.  But  it  is  no  longer  used  for  the  con- 


BOGOTA. 


227 


finement  and  crucifixion  of  heretics.  For  nearly  sixty  years 
after  the  overthrow  of  the  Catholic  Church  it  stood  empty, 
but  it  is  now  occupied  as  a  tobacco  factory.  There  is  an  under¬ 
ground  passage  between  the  old  Inquisition  building  and  an 
ancient  fortress  upon  a  hill  overlooking  Carthagena,  through 
which  prisoners  used  to  be  conducted,  and  communication 
maintained  in  time  of  siege ;  but,  like  everything  else  about 
the  place,  it  has  long  been  in  a  state  of  decay.  Some  years 
ago  a  party  of  American  naval  officers  attempted  to  explore 
the  passage,  but  found  it  filled  with  obstructions,  and  were 
compelled  to  abandon  the  enterprise.  The  old  castle  is  obso¬ 
lete  now,  and  in  a  state  of  ruin,  being  used  only  as  a  signal 
station.  When  a  vessel  enters  the  harbor  a  flag  is  run  up 
by  a  man  on  guard  to  notify  the  Captain  of  the  Port  and 
the  merchants  of  its  arrival. 


CARTHAGENA. 


22S 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


There  are  some  fine  old  churches  and  palaces  in  Cartha- 
gena  constructed  of  stone,  which  show  the  magnificence  in 
which  the  old  grandees  lived  when  the  city  was  a  commercial 
metropolis.  Many  of  them  are  empty  now,  and  others  are 
used  as  tenement  -  houses.  In  the  cathedral,  which  is  one 
of  the  largest  and  most  elaborate  to  be  found  on  the  hemi¬ 
sphere,  is  a  curious  object  of  interest.  It  is  a  magnificent 
marble  pulpit  covered  with  exquisite  carvings.  It  ranks 
among  the  most  beautiful  specimens  of  the  sculptor’s  art  in 
the  world.  The  people  of  Carthagena  think  there  is  nothing 
under  the  sun  to  equal  it,  and  the  story  of  its  origin  adds 
greatly  to  its  value  and  interest.  Two  or  three  hundred 
years  ago  the  Pope,  wishing  to  show  a  mark  of  favor  to  the 
devout  people  of  Colombia,  ordered  the  construction  of  a 
marble  pulpit  for  the  decoration  of  the  grand  cathedral  at 
Carthagena.  It  was  designed  and  carved  by  the  foremost 
artists  of  the  day  at  Pome,  and  when  completed  was  with 
great  ceremony  placed  on  board  a  Spanish  galley  bound  for 
the  New  World.  While  en  route  the  vessel  was  captured 
by  pirates,  and  when  the  boxes  containing  the  pulpit  were 
broken  open,  and  their  contents  found  to  be  of  no  value  as 
plunder,  they  were  tipped  overboard.  But  by  the  interposi¬ 
tion  of  the  Virgin,  none  of  the  pieces  sank  ;  and  the  English 
pirates,  becoming  alarmed  at  the  miracle  of  the  heavy  marble 
floating  on  the  water,  fled  from  the  ship,  leaving  their  booty. 
The  Spanish  sailors  got  the  precious  cargo  aboard  their  ves¬ 
sel  again  with  great  difficulty,  and  started  on  their  way ;  but 
before  they  reached  Carthagena  they  encountered  a  second 
lot  of  pirates,  who  plundered  them  of  all  the  valuables  they 
had  aboard,  and  burned  their  ship.  But  the  saints  still  pre¬ 
served  the  pulpit ;  for,  as  the  vessel  and  the  remainder  of  the 
cargo  were  destroyed,  the  carved  marble  floated  away  upon 
the  surface  of  the  water,  and,  being  guided  by  an  invisible 
hand,  went  ashore  on  the  beach  outside  the  city  to  which  it 
was  destined. 

There  it  lay  for  many  years,  unknown  and  unnoticed. 
Finally,  however,  it  was  discovered  by  a  party  of  explorers, 


BOGOTA. 


229 


who  recognized  the  value  of  the  carvings  and  took  it  aboard 
their  ship  en  route  for  Spain,  intending  to  sell  it  when  they 
reached  home.  But  the  saints  still  kept  their  eyes  upon  the 
Pope’s  offering,  and  sent  the  vessel  such  bad  weather  that  the 
captain  was  compelled  to  put  into  the  port  of  Carthagena  for 
repairs.  There  he  told  the  story  of  the  marble  pulpit  found 
upon  the  beach,  and  it  reached  the  ears  of  the  Archbishop. 
His  Grace  sent  for  the  captain,  informed  him  that  the  pulpit 
was  intended  for  the  decoration  of  the  cathedral,  and  related 
the  story  of  its  construction  and  disappearance.  The  captain 
was  an  ungodly  man,  and  intimated  that  the  Archbishop  was 
attempting  to  humbug  him.  He  offered  to  sell  the  marble, 
and  would  not  leave  it  otherwise.  Having  repaired  the  dam¬ 
age  of  the  storm,  the  captain  started  for  Europe,  but  he  was 
scarcely  out  of  the  harbor  when  a  most  frightful  gale  struck 
him  and  wrecked  his  vessel,  which  went  to  the  bottom  with 
all  on  board  ;  but  the  pulpit,  the  subject  of  so  many  divine 
interpositions,  rose  from  the  wreck,  and  one  morning  came 
floating  into  the  harbor  of  Carthagena,  where  it  was  taken 
in  charge  by  the  Archbishop  and  placed  in  the  cathedral  for 
which  it  was  intended,  and  where  it  now  stands. 

Hear  the  miraculous  pulpit,  in  the  same  church,  is  the  pre¬ 
served  body  of  a  famous  saint.  I  forget  what  his  name  was, 
but  he  is  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation  —  a  skeleton 
with  dried  flesh  and  skin  hanging  to  the  bones.  He  did  some¬ 
thing  hundreds  of  years  ago  which  made  him  very  sacred  to 
the  people  of  Carthagena,  and  by  the  special  permission  of 
the  Pope  his  body  was  disinterred,  placed  in  a  glass  case,  and 
shipped  from  Home  to  ornament  the  cathedral  of  the  former 
city,  along  with  the  miraculous  pulpit.  The  body  is  usually 
covered  with  a  black  pall,  and  is  exposed  only  upon  occasions 
of  great  ceremony,  but  any  one  can  see  the  preserved  saint  by 
paying  a  fee  to  the  priests.  I  purchased  that  privilege,  and 
was  shown  the  glass  coffin  standing  upon  a  marble  pedestal. 
The  bones  are  bare,  except  where  the  brown  skin,  looking  like 
jerked  beef,  covers  them,  and  are  a  ghastly  spectacle.  During 
a  revolution  at  Carthagena  some  impious  soldiers  upset  the 


230 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


coffin  and  destroyed  it.  In  the  melee  one  of  the  saint’s  legs 
was  lost,  or  at  least  the  lower  half  of  it  from  the  knee  down ; 
but  the  priests  replaced  it  with  a  wax  leg,  plump  and  pink, 
which,  lying  beside  the  original,  gives  the  saint  a  very  comi¬ 
cal  appearance. 

There  is  much  of  interest  to  see  at  Carthagena,  and  the 
place  has  had  a  most  romantic  and  exciting  history,  being 


ENTRANCE  TO  THE  OLD  FORTRESS,  CARTHAGENA. 


described  at  length  in  “  Thomson’s  Seasons.”  Again  and 
again  has  it  been  sacked  by  the  pirates,  as  it  was  formerly  the 
shipping-point  for  the  product  of  the  gold  and  silver  mines  for 
which  the  mountains  south  of  it  have  been  so  famous.  Tons 
and  tons  of  gold  and  silver  have  been  sent  thence  to  Spain. 
In  the  times  of  the  viceroys  the  mines  were  worked  under 
the  direction  of  the  Government.  One-fifth  of  the  net  prod¬ 
uct  went  to  the  King,  another  fifth  to  the  Church,  while  the 


BOGOTA. 


231 


miner  was  permitted  to  keep  the  remainder.  The  old  records 
show  that  the  share  of  the  King  was  several  millions  a  year 
for  two  hundred  years  or  more,  and  that  indicates  how  enor¬ 
mous  the  profit  must  have  been ;  for  the  miners  and  officials 
were  no  more  honest  in  those  days  than  now,  and  it  is  not 
entirely  certain  that  the  share  to  which  his  Majesty  was  enti¬ 
tled  always  reached  him. 

The  fortifications  of  Carthagena  surpass  in  extent  and  solid¬ 
ity  those  of  any  city  in  the  New  World,  and  are  still  in  good 
condition,  although  not  occupied,  having  been  constructed 
without  regard  to  expense  and  for  all  time.  The  massive 
walls  of  the  city  are  to  all  appearance  impregnable,  and  the 
ancient  subterranean  passages  leading  outward  to  the  foot 
of  the  adjacent  mountains  are  still  visible.  The  entrance  to 
the  magnificent  harbor  is  studded  with  ancient  fortifications, 
which,  though  now  unused  for  more  than  half  a  century,  seem 
almost  as  good  as  new.  Formerly  the  city  was  connected  by 
ship-channel  with  the  river  Magdalena,  at  a  point  many  leagues 
above  the  delta,  and  was,  therefore,  in  easy  communication 
with  the  fertile  valleys  and  plateaux  of  the  interior  —  the 
gate  of  commerce  in  time  of  peace,  and  secure  alike  from 
protracted  siege  or  successful  assault  in  time  of  war. 

The  decline  of  Carthagena  seems  to  have  commenced  with 
the  present  century,  and  to  have  steadily  continued  to  within 
the  past  fifteen  years,  when  the  commerce  of  the  country 
began  to  revive.  In  the  mean  time  the  ship-canal  connect¬ 
ing  the  port  with  the  great  fluvial  highway  of  the  interior 
having  fallen  into  disuse,  became  filled  up  and  overgrown 
with  tropical  jungle ;  so  that  the  few  foreign  trading- vessels 
visiting  the  coast  sought  harborage  farther  up,  at  a  place  called 
Barranquilla,  near  the  mouth  of  the  Magdalena.  Barranquilla 
has  become  the  chief  city  of  commercial  importance  within  the 
United  States  of  Colombia,  and  is  the  residence  of  many  of 
the  principal  merchants  of  the  republic.  It  is  a  growing  city, 
and  from  a  few  houses  twenty  years  ago  it  now  has  a  popu¬ 
lation  of  upwards  of  twenty-five  thousand.  Situated  as  it  is, 
so  near  the  outlet  of  the  Magdalena  River,  it  is  destined  to 


232 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


increase  in  size  and  commerce,  and  to  become  to  Colombia 
what  Xew  York  is  to  the  United  States — the  great  commercial 
emporium  of  the  republic  ;  Aspinwall  and  Panama,  free  ports, 
being  more  a  highway  of  nations  than  a  part  of  this  country. 
To  this  end  Barranquilla  has  many  things  in  its  favor.  The 
custom-house  is  located  there.  All  the  river  steamers  and 
sailing-vessels  on  the  Magdalena,  conveying  from  the  vast 
back-lying  interior  to  the  coast  the  multitudinous  products 
of  the  country,  start  from  and  return  to  this  place. 

But  Barranquilla  has  its  drawbacks.  As  soon  as  it  secured 
a  little  commerce  a  large  bar  began  to  form  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  and  has  grown  until  it  has  become  a  sand -spit 
which  prevents  the  entrance  of  steamers.  Then  a  new  town, 
called  Sabanilla,  was  started  on  the  spit,  which  is  connected 
with  Barranquilla  by  a  railway  fourteen  miles  long,  owned 
and  operated  by  a  German  company.  But  the  harbor  of 
Sabanilla,  though  now  the  principal  one  of  the  republic,  is 
neither  convenient  nor  safe.  It  is  shallow,  full  of  shifting 
sand-bars,  and  exposed  to  furious  wind-storms ;  while  the  new 
port  of  Barranquilla  is  quite  inaccessible  from  the  delta,  by 
reason  of  its  treacherous  sand-bars.  So  with  the  opening  of 
the  ancient  clique,  or  ship-channel,  between  Carthagena  and 
Calamar,  or  the  construction  of  a  railway  between  the  first- 
named  point  and  Barranquilla  (both  of  which  enterprises  are 
being  agitated),  Carthagena  may  regain  her  ancient  prestige 
and  become  the  chief  port  of  the  republic. 

Sabanilla  is  a  most  desolate  place,  nothing  but  sand,  filth, 
and  poverty ;  and  were  it  not  for  the  sea-breeze  that  constantly 
sweeps  across  the  barren  peninsula  upon  which  it  stands,  the 
inhabitants  could  not  survive.  Xo  one  fives  there  except  a 
colony  of  cargaclors,  boatmen,  and  roustabouts,  who  swarm, 
like  so  many  animals,  in  filthy  huts  built  of  palm-leaves,  and 
a  few  saloon  -  keepers,  who  give  them  wine  in  exchange  for 
the  money  they  earn.  The  men  and  women  are  almost 
naked,  and  the  children  entirely  so.  Perhaps  the  reason  for 
the  nastiness  of  the  place  is  because  there  is  no  fresh  water ; 
but  the  inhabitants  ought  not  to  be  excused  on  this  account, 


BOGOTA. 


233 


as  the  beach  furnishes  as  fine  bathing  as  can  he  found  in  the 
world,  and  is  at  their  very  doors.  All  the  fresh  water  used 
has  to  be  brought  in  canoes  from  a  point  eight  miles  up  the 
river,  and  is  sold  by  the  dipperful ;  but  only  a  moderate  quan¬ 
tity  is  necessary  for  consumption.  Most  of  the  inhabitants 
are  Canary  Islanders,  who  monopolize  the  boating  business 
along  this  coast ;  but  sprinkled  among  them  are  many  Italians, 
and  nearly  every  nation  on  earth  is  represented,  even  China. 
The  only  laundry  is  run  by  a  Chinaman,  and  another  is  cook 
at  a  place  that  is  used  as  a  substitute  for  a  hotel.  The  boat¬ 
men  are  drunken,  quarrelsome,  desperate  wretches ;  murder  is 
frequent  among  them,  and'  fighting  the  chief  amusement. 

Barranquilla  is  the  most  modern  town  in  Colombia  except 
Aspinwall,  which  it  resembles  somewhat.  It  has  some  fine 
houses  and  quite  a  large 
foreign  colony,  many  of 
its  merchants  being  Ger¬ 
mans,  who  five  in  good 
style,  and  enjoy  many 
comforts  at  qn  enormous 
cost ;  for  flour  is  twenty- 
five  dollars  a  barrel  and 
meat  twenty-five  cents  a 
pound,  beer  twenty -five 
cents  a  glass,  and  every¬ 
thing  else  in  proportion. 

There  is  nothing  in  plen¬ 
ty  but  fruits  and  flies. 

The  town  is  the  capital 
of  the  State  of  Sabanilla, 
and  has  a  considerable 
military  garrison,  which 
is  important  in  keep¬ 
ing  down  insurrections. 

During  the  revolution  of  1885  Barranquilla  was  the  head¬ 
quarters  of  the  insurrectionary  army,  and,  commanding  the 
only  outlet  from  the  interior,  is  naturally  a  place  of  conse- 


COLOMBIAN  MILITARY  MEN. 


234 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


quence,  from  a  military  as  well  as  from  a  commercial  stand¬ 
point. 

The  great  valley  of  the  Magdalena,  extending  from  the 
Caribbean  coast  to  the  equatorial  line,  is  one  of  inexhaustible 
resources.  Its  width  varies  from  one  hundred  to  one  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  miles  before  gradually  sloping  to  a  point  in 
the  northern  borders  of  the  equator.  At  the  mouth  of  the 
river  Cauca  this  valley  branches  off  into  another  of  less  gen¬ 
eral  width  but  of  greater  elevation,  and  consequent^  pos¬ 
sesses  a  more  equable  and  temperate  climate.  The  river 
Cauca  is  itself  navigable  by  a  light-draught  steamer  as  far 
as  Cali,  a  point  less  than  eighty'  miles  from  the  port  of 
Buenaventura  on  the  Pacific  coast.  The  lower  valley  of  the 
Magdalena  is  one  vast  alluvial  plain,  a  large  portion  of  which 
is  subject  to  periodical  overflow.  In  fact,  during  the  rainy 
season  the  greater  portion  of  it  is  usually  under  water.  This, 
however,  might  be  prevented,  and  the  fertile  lands  reclaimed, 
by  a  system  of  dikes  far  less  expensive  than  those  of  the 
lower  Mississippi.  But  in  a  country  where  population  is 
sparse,  and  Nature  lavish  in  her  bounties,  such  enterprises  are 
not  usually  undertaken. 

The  distance  from  Barranquilla  to  Honda,  the  head  of 
navigation  on  the  Magdalena,  is  seven  hundred  and  eighty 
miles,  following  the  course  of  the  river,  but  in  a  direct  line  is 
only  about  one-third  of  that  distance.  The  journey  by  boat 
requires  from  ten  to  thirty  days,  according  to  the  condition 
of  the  river.  In  the  rainy  season  the  banks  are  full,  and  the 
current  so  strong  that  the  little  steamers  cannot  make  much 
progress ;  but  if  the  moon  is  bright  enough  to  show  the  course, 
they  are  kept  in  motion  night  and  day.  In  the  dry  season  the 
river  is  shallow,  and  the  boats  have  to  tie  up  at  dark,  and 
remain  so  till  daylight.  Then,  on  nearly  every  voyage  they 
run  aground,  and  often  stick  for  a  day  or  two,  sometimes  a 
week,  before  they  can  be  got  off. 

The  boats  are  similar  to  those  used  upon  the  Ohio  and 
other  rivers,  with  a  paddle  -  wheel  behind,  and  draw  only  a 
foot  or  two  of  water  even  when  heavily  laden,  so  that  they 


BOGOTA. 


235 


can  go  over  the  bars.  There  are  two  steamboat  companies, 
both  with  United  States  capital ;  one  is  managed  by  a  Mr.  Joy, 
and  the  other  by  a  Mr.  Cisneros,  a  naturalized  Italian.  During 
the  revolution  all  the  boats  were  seized  by  the  insurgents. 
Their  sides  were  covered  with  corrugated  iron,  so  as  to  make 
them  bullet-proof,  a  small  cannon  or  two  mounted  upon  the 
decks,  and  the  cabins  filled  with  sharp-shooters.  So  prepared, 


ON  THE  MAGDALENA. 


they  were  used  as  gun-boats,  and  were  quite  effective.  Many 
of  them  were  destroyed,  so  that  transportation  facilities  upon 
the  Magdalena  are  not  so  good  as  they  were. 

The  first  two  hundred  miles  is  a  continuous  swamp  ;  the 
next  three  hundred  miles  is  a  vast  plain,  which  is  under  water 
about  two  months  in  the  year,  during  the  floods  that  follow 
the  rainy  season,  but  at  other  times  is  covered  with  cattle, 
which  are  driven  into  the  mountains  before  the  floods  come. 
The  banks  along  the  river  were  formerly  occupied  with 


236 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


profitable  plantations,  which  were  worked  by  negro  slaves,  as 
neither  the  Spaniards  nor  the  native  Indians  could  endure  the 
climate  and  the  mosquitoes.  But  when  the  emancipation  of 
the  slaves  took  place,  in  1824,  the  plantations  were  abandoned, 
and  have  since  been  so  overgrown  with  tropical  vegetation 
that  no  traces  of  their  former  cultivation  exist.  The  negroes, 
who  have  descended  from  the  former  slaves,  have  relapsed  into 
a  condition  of  semi-barbarism,  and  while  they  still  occupy  the 
old  estancias,  lead  a  lazy,  shiftless,  degraded  life,  subsisting 
upon  fish  and  the  fruits  which  grow  everywhere  in  wonder¬ 
ful  profusion.  Nature  provides  for  them,  and  no  amount  of 
wages  can  tempt  them  to  work.  A  few  small  villages  have 
sprung  up  along  the  river,  which  are  trading  stations,  and  fur¬ 
nish  some  freight  for  the  steamers  in  the  shape  of  fruit,  poul¬ 
try,  eggs,  cocoa-nuts,  and  similar  articles,  which  are  attended 
to  by  the  women  of  the  country. 

The  river  itself  is  a  great  natural  curiosity.  It  flows 
almost  directly  northward,  and  drains  an  enormous  area  of 
mountains  which  are  constantly  covered  with  snow.  The  cur¬ 
rent  is  as  swift  as  that  of  the  Mississippi,  which  it  resembles, 
and  the  water,  always  muddy,  is  so  full  of  sediment  that  one 
can  hear  it  striking  the  sides  of  the  boat.  The  water  will  not 
mix  with  that  of  the  sea,  and  for  fifty  miles  into  the  ocean  it 
can  be  distinguished.  In  some  places  it  is  seven  or  eight  miles 
wide,  at  others  it  is  scarcely  more  than  a  hundred  yards,  where 
it  has  cut  its  way  through  the  rolling  earth.  The  channel, 
which  has  never  been  cleared,  is  full  of  treacherous  bars  and 
snags,  which  are  continually  shifting,  and  make  it  necessary 
to  tie  up  the  steamer  every  night,  except  in  times  of  high 
water  during  the  rainy  season.  The  mosquitoes  are  monu¬ 
mental  in  size,  and  at  some  seasons  of  the  year,  when  the 
winds  are  strong  and  blow  them  from  the  jungles,  it  is  almost 
impossible  to  endure  them.  The  officers  and  deck  hands  of 
the  boat  all  wear  thick  veils  over  their  faces,  and  heavy  buck¬ 
skin  gloves,  awake  or  asleep ;  and  the  passengers,  unless  simi¬ 
larly  protected,  are  subject  to  the  most  intense  torment.  Often 
the  swarms  are  so  thick  that  they  obscure  the  sky,  and  the 


BOGOTA. 


237 


sound  of  humming  is  so  loud  that  it  resembles  the  murmur 
of  an  approaching  storm. 

Some  ludicrous  stories  are  told  about  adventures  with  the 
mosquitoes.  I  have  been  solemnly  assured  that  oftentimes 
when  they  have  attacked  a  boat  and  driven  its  captain  and 
crew  below,  they  have  broken  the  windows  of  the  cabin  by 
plunging  in  swarms  against  them,  and  have  attempted  to 
burst  in  the  doors.  Although  this  may  be  somewhat  of  an 
exaggeration,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  frequently  horses 


COLOMBIAN  ’GATORS. 


and  cattle,  after  the  most  frightful  sufferings,  have  died  from 
mosquito  bites  on  board  the  vessels.  Not  long  ago  a  herd  of 
valuable  cattle  were  being  taken  from  the  United  States  to  a 
ranch  up  the  Magdalena  River,  and  became  so  desperate  un¬ 
der  the  attacks  of  the  mosquitoes  that  they  broke  from  their 
stalls,  jumped  into  the  water,  and  were  all  drowned.  Passen¬ 
gers  intending  to  make  the  voyage  always  provide  themselves 
with  protection  in  the  shape  of  mosquito-bars,  head-nets,  and 
thick  gloves,  and  when  on  deck  are  compelled  to  tie  their 


238 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


sleeves  around  their  wrists  and  their  pantaloons  around  their 
ankles. 

The  alligators  are  so  numerous  along  the  hanks  that  the 
same  story-tellers  assert  that  you  could  step  from  the  back 
of  one  to  another,  and  thus  walk  for  miles  without  touching 
ground.  They  are  playful  creatures,  and  not  at  all  timid,  but 
bask  quietly  in  the  sun  until  disturbed,  when  they  plunge  into 
the  river.  The  steamboats  are  always  followed  by  schools  of 
them,  and  the  passengers  amuse  themselves  by  firing  at  them 
from  the  deck.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  kill  them  for 
profit,  but  if  some  enterprising  hunters  should  go  to  the  Mag¬ 
dalena  country  and  make  a  business  of  curing  and  shipping 
alligator  hides,  they  would  find  it  a  profitable  venture. 

Once  or  twice  a  day  the  steamboats  stop  for  freight  or  fuel, 
which  is  supplied  them  by  the  settlers,  and  brought  on  board 
by  naked  negroes. 

1  The  town  of  Honda,  at  the  head  of  navigation,  is  a  place 
of  considerable  importance,  and  at  intervals  for  the  last  quar¬ 
ter  of  a  century  American  companies  have  undertaken  the 
construction  of  a  railroad  from  it  to  Bogota — a  distance  of  sev¬ 
enty  miles  through  mountains.  About  ten  leagues  of  track 
have  been  built,  but  those  in  charge  have  been  compelled  again 
and  again  to  abandon  it  because  of  the  revolutions  and  the  im¬ 
possibility  of  securing  labor.  The  natives  cannot  be  induced 
to  work,  and  no  wages  that  the  company  can  pay  will  induce 
immigration.  But  the  enterprise  is  being  slow  ly  extended, 
with  the  encouragement  of  the  Government  in  the  shape  of  a 
concession  of  money  and  lands,  and  ultimately  the  persever¬ 
ance  which  conquers  all  things  will  succeed.  There  is  also  a 
liberal  concession  from  the  Government  to  another  syndicate 
of  New  York  capitalists  for  the  construction  of  a  railway  into 
the  Cauca  valley,  where  are  supposed  to  be  the  richest  gold¬ 
mines  in  the  world,  from  which  the  hundreds  of  millions 
taken  away  by  the  Spaniards  came. 

From  Honda  to  Bogota  the  journey  must  be  made  on 
mule-back,  and  it  requires  four  days  to  cover  the  seventy 
miles.  Recently  there  has  been  a  line  of  stage-coaches  estab- 


BOGOTA. 


239 


miles.  In  describing  the  journey  Mr.  Scruggs,  recently  United 
States  Minister  to  Colombia,  says : 

“  After  perfecting  all  necessary  arrangements  the  day  pre¬ 
vious,  the  traveller  rises  at  six,  takes  a  light  breakfast  of 
chocolate  and  bread,  and  hopes  to  be  on  the  way  by  seven. 
But  people  here  take  life  easily.  Servants  and  guides  and 


lished  between  Bogota  and  the  town  of  Agrialarge,  which 
shortens  the  time  a  day,  and  the  distance  by  saddle  thirty 


VEGETABLE  IVORY  PLANT. 


240 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


muleteers  make  no  note  of  time,  and  it  is  quite  useless  to  try 
to  hurry  them,  so  that  if  he  gets  fairly  under  way  by  noon 
he  is  fortunate.  Just  beyond  the  deep,  broad  Talley  of  the 
Magdalena  are  the  snow-capped  mountains  of  Tolima.  They 
seem  marvellously  near,  and  yet  they  are  more  than  one 
hundred  miles  distant,  so  very  clear  and  transparent  is  the 
pure  ethereal  atmosphere  of  this  elevated  region.  In  the 
opposite  direction  is  the  dish -shaped  valley  of  Guaduas, 
fringed  with  luxuriant  foliage  of  the  coffee  plantations  and 
the  virgin  forests  of  emerald  green.  In  the  centre  of  this 
valley  reposes  the  parochial  village,  with  its  church  steeples 
reaching  upward  as  if  in  feeble  imitation  of  the  adjacent 
mountain-peaks. 

«  The  valley  is  watered  by  the  Rio  Negro ;  justly  so  named, 
for  'its  waters  are  as  black  as  ink,  so  rendered  by  their  pas¬ 
sage  through  the  coal  and  mineral  deposits  along  the  foot¬ 
hills  of  the  Sierra.  Near  by  are  a  noted  sulphur  spring  and 
the  extinct  volcano  which  Humboldt  describes  as  likely,  one 
day,  to  break  out  afresh  and  destroy  this  beautiful  valley. 
Though  quite  hot,  the  atmosphere  is  singularly  dry  and  sani¬ 
tary’  and  the  place  is  often  resorted  to  by  invalids  from  Bo¬ 
gota  and  the  more  elevated  regions. 

"  Up  to  this  point  our  journey  has  been  alternating  be¬ 
tween  deep  valleys  and  dizzy  mountain  -  peaks.  Me  cross 
one  only  to  encounter  another.  Such  is  the  Camino  Real, 
or  k  Royal  Highway,’  the  only  available  route  between  the 
Colombian  capital  and  the  outside  world.  Within  the  past 
few  years  it  has  been  much  improved,  it  is  time,  and  at  great 
expense  to  the  Government ;  but  it  is  still  little  else  than  a 
mere  mule  trail,  not  wide  enough  in  many  places  for  two 
mules  to  walk  abreast,  and  so  tortuous  and  precipitous  as  to 
be  impassable  except  on  the  backs  of  animals  trained  to  the 
road.  When  we  reflect  that  this  is  the  overland  highway  of 
an  immense  commerce,  and  that  it  has  been  in  constant  use 
since  the  Spanish  conquest,  we  naturally  marvel  that  it  is  no 
better.  It  seems  to  have  been  constructed  without  any  pre¬ 
vious  survey  whatever,  and  without  the  least  regard  for  com- 


BOGOTA, 


241 


fort  or  convenience,  making  short  curves  where  curves  are 
quite  unnecessary,  or  going  straight  over  some  mountain 
spur  or  peak, 
when  the  ascent 
might  have  been 
rendered  less  dif¬ 
ficult  by  easy 
curves.  But,  to 
the  observant 
traveller,  the  in¬ 
conveniences  aud 
hardships  of  the 
journey  are,  in 
some  measure, 
compensated  by 
the  varied  and 
captivating  sce¬ 
nery.  He  passes 
through  a  variety 
of  climates  with¬ 
in  a  few  hours’ 
ride.  At  one  time 
he  is  ascending 
a  dizzy  steep  by 
a  sort  of  rustic 
stairway  hewn 
into  the  rock-rib¬ 
bed  mountain, 
where  the  air  re¬ 
minds  him  of  a 
chilly  November 
morning ;  a  few 
hours  later  he  is 
descending  to 
the  region  of  the 
plantain  and  the 

banana,  where  en  route  to  bogota. 


16 


242 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  summer  never  ends,  and  the  rank  crops  of  fruits  and 
flowers  chase  each  other  in  unbroken  circle  from  January  to 
December.  On  the  bleak  crests  of  the  paramos  lie  encounters 
neither  tree  nor  shrub,  where  a  few  blades  of  sedge  and  the 
flitting  of  a  few  sparrows  give  the  only  evidences  of  vege¬ 
table  or  animal  life ;  while  in  the  deep  valley  just  below,  the 
dense  groves  of  palm  and  cotton-wood  are  alive  with  birds  of 
rich  and  varied  plumage,  and  the  air  seems  loaded  with  floral 
perfumes  until  the  senses  fairly  ache  with  their  sweetness. 

“  This  plain  is  the  traditional  elysium  of  the  ancient  Chib- 
elms,  and  their  imperial  capital  was  near  the  site  of  the  pres¬ 
ent  capital  of  Colombia ;  and  perhaps  around  no  one  spot  on 
the  American  continent  cluster  so  many  legends  of  the  abo¬ 
rigines,  or  (piite  so  many  improbable  stories  illustrative  of  the 
ancient  civilization.  Here  one  can  almost  imagine  himself  in 
the  north  temperate  zone,  anti  in  a  country  inhabited  by  a 
race  wholly  different  from  the  people  heretofore  seen  in  the 
republic.  Agriculture  and  the  useful  arts  seem  at  least  a 
century  ahead  of  those  on  the  coast  and  in  the  torrid  valleys 
of  the  great  rivers.  The  ox-cart  and  plantation-wagon  have 
supplanted  the  traditional  pack -mule  and  ground -sled;  the 
neat  iron  spade  and  patent  plough  have  taken  the  place  of 
wooden  shovels  and  clumsy  forked  sticks ;  the  enclosures 
are  of  substantial  stone  or  adobe,  and  the  spacious  farm¬ 
house,  or  quinta,  has  an  air  of  palatial  elegance  compared 
with  the  mud  and  bamboo  hut  of  the  Magdalena.  The  peo¬ 
ple  have  a  clear,  ruddy  complexion,  at  least  compared  with 
those  heretofore  seen  in  the  country,  and  their  dialect  is  a 
near  approach  to  the  rich  and  sonorous  Castilian,  once  so 
liquid  and  harmonious  in  poetry  and  song,  so  majestic  and 
persuasive  on  the  forum.  Xone  of  these  agricultural  imple¬ 
ments.  and  none  of  these  commodious  coaches  and  omnibuses, 
were  manufactured  here  nor  elsewhere  in  Colombia.  They 
have  all  been  imported  from  the  United  States  or  England. 
They  were  brought  to  Honda  by  the  river  steamers,  packed 
in  small  sections,  and  thence  lugged  over  the  mountains  piece 
by  piece. 


BOGOTA. 


243 


“  One  peon  will  carry  a  wheel,  another  an  axle,  a  third  a 
coupling  -  pole  or  single-tree,  and  the  screws  and  bolts  are 
packed  in  small  boxes  on  cargo  mules.  The  upper  part  or 
body  of  the  vehicle  is  likewise  taken  to  pieces  and  packed  in 
sections.  One  man  will  sometimes  be  a  month  in  carrying  a 
wagon-wheel  from  Honda  to  the  plain.  His  method  is  to 
carry  it  some  fifty  or  a  hundred  paces  and  then  rest,  making 
sometimes  less  than  two  miles  a  day. 


SABANA  OF  BOGOTA. 


“When  the  vehicle  finally  reaches  the  plain,  the  pieces  are 
collected  and  put  together  by  some  smithy  who  may  have 
learned  the  art  from  an  American  or  English  mechanic.  One 
scarcely  knows  which  ought  to  be  the  greatest  marvel,  the 
failure  to  manufacture  all  these  things  in  a  country  where 
woods  and  coal  and  iron  ore  are  so  abundant,  or  the  obsta¬ 
cles  that  are  overcome  in  their  successful  importation  from 
foreign  countries. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


244 


“At  the  time  of  the  Spanish  conquest,  in  1537,  the  inhabi¬ 
tants  of  this  region  were  the  Chibchas,  who,  according  to 
Quesada,  numbered  about  three-quarters  of  a  million.  Their 
form  of  government  was  essentially  patriarchal,  and  their 
habits  were  those  of  an  agricultural  people  given  to  the  arts 
of  peaceful  industry.  Their  religion  contained  much  to 
remind  us  of  the  ancient  Buddhists.  It  imposed  none  of 
those  revolting  sacrifices  of  human  victims  which  marked  the 
rituals  of  the  Aztecs.  They  had  their  divine  Mediata  in  Bo- 
hica,  or  Deity  of  Mercy.  Their  C’hibchacum  corresponded  to 
the  Buddhist  god  of  Agriculture.  Their  god  of  Science,  as 
represented  by  earthen  images  which  I  have  examined,  was 
almost  identical  with  the  Buddhist  god  of  Wisdom,  as  repre¬ 
sented  by  the  images  in  some  of  the  Chinese  temples.  They 
had  also  a  traditional  Spirit  of  Evil,  corresponding  to  Neawa- 
tha  of  the  ancient  Mexicans  and  to  the  Satan  of  the  Hebrews. 
And  connected  with  their  Hood  myth  was  a  character  corre¬ 
sponding  to  the  Hebrew  Noah,  the  Greek  Ducalaine,  and  the 
Mexican  Cojcoj. 

“  The  capital  of  the  Chibchan  empire  was  Bocata.  of  which 
Bogota  is  manifestly  a  mere  corruption.  It  was  situated  near 
the  site  of  the  present  Colombian  capital.  But  their  most 
ancient  political  capital  was  Mangueta,  near  the  site  of  the 
present  village  of  Funza,  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  plain. 
Near  the  site  of  the  present  grand  cathedral,  in  the  heart  of 
the  present  city  of  Bogota,  was  a  temple  consecrated  to  the 
god  of  Agriculture.  Here  the  Emperor  and  his  cacique,  accom¬ 
panied  by  the  chief  men  of  the  country,  were  wont  to  assem¬ 
ble  twice  a  year  and  offer  oblations  to  the  deity  who  was  sup¬ 
posed  to  preside  over  the  harvests  —  a  ceremony  not  unlike 
the  •  moon  feasts  ’  celebrated  to-day  in  many  of  the  interior 
districts  of  China. 

“  The  altitude  of  the  plain  above  the  sea-level  is  8750  feet, 
and  its  mean  temperature  is  about  59°  Fahrenheit.  The 
atmosphere  is  thin,  pure,  and  exhilarating,  but  it  is  perhaps 
not  conducive  either  to  longevity  or  great  mental  activity. 
A  man,  for  instance,  accustomed  to  eight  hours’  daily  mental 


BOGOTA. 


9A5 


labor  in  New  York  or  Washington  will  here  find  it  impossible 
to  apply  himself  closely  for  more  than  five  hours  each  day. 
If  he  exceeds  that  limit  ominous  symptoms  of  nervous  pros¬ 
tration  will  be  almost  sure  to  follow.” 

Bogota  has  a  population  of  one  hundred  thousand,  and  is  in 
some  respects  quite  modern,  but  in  others  two  centuries  behind 
the  times.  It  is  built  chiefly  with  adobe  houses  that  have  a 
very  unprepossessing  appearance  on  the  exterior.  But  the 


SANTA  FB  DE  BOGOTA. 


2±6 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


interiors  of  many  of  the  houses  are  elegantly  furnished.  It 
costs  one  thousand  dollars  to  pay  the  freight  on  a  piano  to  the 
city,  yet  nearly  all  the  well-to-do  people  have  them.  From 
Honda  to  Bogota  they  have  to  be  carried  on  the  backs  of 
mules.  There  are  few  carriages,  because  the  roads  will  not 
allow  of  them ;  but  there  is  an  extensive  system  of  street-car 
lines,  every  bit  of  material  used  in  their  construction  being 
brought  in  the  same  manner  over  the  mountains.  The  cars 
were  shipped  in  sections  not  too  heavy  for  a  man  to  carry, 
and  the  rails  were  borne  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  dozen  per¬ 
sons.  Yet,  notwithstanding  this  enormous  expense,  the  roads, 

which  are  owned  by 
New  York  capitalists, 
are  very  profitable  in¬ 
vestments,  the  fare 
charged  being  twelve 
and  a  half  cents  in  Co¬ 
lombian  coin,  which  is 
equivalent  to  ten  cents 
in  our  currency.  The 
street-car  drivers  carry 
horns,  which  they  blow 
constantly,  so  as  to  no¬ 
tify  the  people  in  the 
houses  of  their  ap¬ 
proach.  The  streets 
are  narrow,  paved  with 
stone,  and  in  the  cen¬ 
tre  of  each  is  a  gutter, 
through  which  a  stream 
of  water  is  constantly 
flowing. 

The  streets,  as  in 
other  Spanish  -  Ameri¬ 
can  cities,  are  named 
after  the  saints,  battle- 
monument  in  the  plaza  of  los  jiartiks.  fields,  and  famous  gen- 


BOGOTA. 


247 


erals;  but  the  houses  are 
not  numbered,  and  it  is 
difficult  for  a  stranger  to 
find  one  that  he  happens 
to  want  to  visit. 

The  police  do  duty  only 
tat  night.  During  the  day 
the  citizens  take  care  of 
themselves.  Four  police¬ 
men  are  stationed  at  the 
four  corners  of  a  plaza. 
Every  fifteen  minutes  a 
bell  rings,  which  causes 
the  guardians  of  the  city 
to  blow  their  whistles  and 
change  posts.  By  this 
system  it  is  impossible 
for  them  to  sleep  on  their 
beats.  They  are  armed 
with  lassos,  and  by  the 
dexterous  use  of  this  for¬ 
midable  weapon  they  pin¬ 
ion  the  prowling  thief 
when  he  is  trying  to  es¬ 
cape.  They  also  have  a 
short  bayonet  as  an  ad¬ 
ditional  weapon.  Petty 
thefts  are  the  chief  crimes. 
The  natives  are  not  quar¬ 
relsome  nor  dishonest. 
They  will  steal  a  little  • 
thing ;  but  as  messengers 
you  can  easily  trust  them 
with  three  thousand  or 
twenty  thousand  dollars. 
When  they  work  they  go 
at  it  in  earnest,  but  they 


PLAZA,  AND  STATUE  OP  BOLIVAR. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


248 


are  not  fond  of  exertion.  It  is  a  curious  sight  to  see  car- 
gaclors  going  about  with  loads.  They  generally  go  in  pairs, 
one  behind  the  other,  w  it h  a  stretcher.  The  natives  of  the 
lower  class  are  fond  of  drinking  and  gambling.  They  have 
a  beverage  called  chica,  which  has  a  vile  smell  It  does  not 
intoxicate  as  quickly  as  whiskey,  but  it  stupefies. 

Society  is  very  exclusive,  and  strangers  call  first.  If  the 
visit  is  returned  the  doors  of  society  are  opened.  The  pre¬ 
dominating-  language  is  Spanish,  hut  all  the  upper  classes 
speak  French.  They  get  everything  from  France,  too,  in  the 
way  of  dress  and  luxuries.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  to  speak 
I  lench  to  get  along.  1  he  city  is  a  city  of  paradoxes — of  great 
wealth,  of  great  poverty,  and  a  peculiar  mixture  of  customs 
tli.it  olten  puzzle  the  stranger.  The  foremost  men  in  the 
mercantile,  political,  and  literary  circles  are  from  the  old  Cas¬ 
tilian  families,  but  so  changed  by  intermarriage  that  all  bloods 
run  in  their  veins. 

The  ruling  class  are  the  politicians,  but  they  are  more  un¬ 
der  the  control  of  the  military  than  is  generally  the  case  else¬ 
where.  Out  of  thirty-three  Presidents  that  have  ruled  the 
republic  seventeen  have  been  generals  in  the  army.  Among 
the  leading  minds  are  highly  educated  men  who  can  converse 
and  write  fluently  in  several  languages,  who  can  demonstrate 
the  most  difficult  problems  in  astronomical  or  mathematical 
formulas',  who  can  dictate  a  learned  philosophical  discourse, 
or  dispute  with  any  the  influence  of  intricate  history.  Their 
constitution,  laws,  and  government  are  modelled  after  those 
of  the  United  States;  their  financial  policies  after  England; 
their  fashions,  manners,  and  customs  after  the  French;  their 
literature,  verbosity,  and  suavity  after  the  Spaniards.  Patri¬ 
otic  eloquence  is  their  ideal,  and  well  it  is  realized  in  some  of 
their  orators. 

Until  the  ratification  of  the  “concordat”  with  the  Pope,  in 
1SS8,  education  was  free  and  compulsory,  sectarian  schools 
were  prohibited,  and  all  orders  of  religious  seclusion  sup¬ 
pressed  ;  but  under  that  document  the  ancient  relations  be¬ 
tween  the  Church  and  State  were  restored,  the  school  laws 


BOGOTA. 


249 


were  repealed,  the  education  of  the  children  was  intrusted 
again  to  the  priests,  and  the  monks  and  nuns  were  permitted 
to  return  to  the  country  and  reoccupy  the  cloisters  from  which 
they  were  expelled  by  the  Liberal  party  several  years  before. 
The  monasteries,  convents,  and  valuable  productive  estates 
which  had  been  confiscated  by  the  Government  from  time 
to  time  since  1825  were  restored  to  the  religious  orders ;  and 
all  the  educational  institutions,  including  the  university,  the 


GOING  TO  THE  MARKET. 


medical,  law,  and  other  scientific  schools,  the  learned  societies, 
the  observatory,  the  libraries,  and  museums,  were  removed 
from  the  charge  of  the  civil  minister  of  education,  placed 
under  the  care  of  the  archbishop,  with  a  liberal  subsidy  from 
the  public  treasury  for  their  maintenance,  and  by  the  terms 
of  the  “concordat”  devoted  forever  “to  the  glorification 
and  advancement  of  the  Holy  Catholic  Church.”  In  one 
or  two  of  the  seaports  Protestant  missionaries  are  getting  a 


250 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


foothold,  but  very  slowly,  as  everything  is  against  them. 
The  unconquered  Indian  tribes  retain  their  peculiar  religious 

rites. 

Lately  banks  and 
bankers  have  multiplied 
to  a  great  extent.  Pa¬ 
per  -  money,  heretofore 
almost  unknown,  is  fast 
supplanting  the  coin  of 
the  country.  This  places 
a  great  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  bankers. 
They  are  allowed  to  is¬ 
sue  bills  far  above  their 
specie  reserve,  charging 
from  three  -  fourths  to 
one  and  a  half  per  cent, 
a  month  for  loans.  The 
profits  are  very  large, 
some  banks  paying  divi¬ 
dends  as  high  as  thirty 
per  cent,  per  annum. 
The  wholesale  and  com¬ 
mission  merchants  com¬ 
prise  a  large  class.  They  buy  from  the  lowest-selling  market 
giving  the  largest  credits,  and  sell  to  the  small  tradesmen  of 
their  individual  section,  often  supplying  these  individuals  with 
goods  iu  advance  on  the  coming  crop.  This  gives  them  con¬ 
trol  of  the  produce  a  long  time  ahead. 

The  non-producers  are  the  gamblers  and  beggars.  The  peo¬ 
ple  are  given  to  games  of  chance.  Lotteries  and  raffles  find 
many  devotees.  Beggars  are  very  plentiful,  owing  to  the 
peculiar  diseases  that  scourge  the  country.  Saturday  is  their 
day ;  then  every  merchant  places  on  his  table  a  quantity  of 
small  change,  and  delivers  it  as  the  mendicants  call.  There 
are  a  number  of  hospitals,  cared  for  by  the  Sisters  of 


Charity. 


BOGOTA. 


251 


The  Colombians  are  musicians,  and  spend  a  great  amount 
of  time  and  money  in  gaining  this  accomplishment.  The 
German  piano  is  found  in  almost  every  house,  and  many 
young  people  gain  their  living  teaching  this  art,  while  extrav¬ 
agant  figures  are  paid  to  foreign  professors.  There  are  few 
actors  or  actresses.  The  taste  of  the  people  is  favorable  to 


AN  ORCHID. 


252 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  growth  of  this  art,  and  when  a  really  good  artist  passes 
through  the  country  he  reaps  a  rich  harvest. 

Collectors  of  orchids  are  often  sent  out  by  European  houses, 
they  establish  themselves  qt  the  most  convenient  place,  and 
send  out  nati\e  runners,  paying  them  from  one  to  thirty  cents 
a  plant,  according  to  the  kind  and  condition  of  the  parasites. 
They  are  worth  from  £5  to  £100  in  Europe.  All  the  lower 
classes  work  indiscriminately.  Indeed,  the  women  do  the  heav¬ 
iest  part  of  the  work,  carrying  over  the  mountains  burdens 
equal  to  those  of  the  men,  and  one  or  two  children  besides. 
Travellers  are  carried  over  the  mountain  -  passes  in  “sillas*’ 
upon  the  backs  of  natives.  These  carriers  are  surefooted, 
and  capable  of  great  endurance,  usually  making  better  time 
than  mules.  The  sillas  are  nothing  more  than  rude  bamboo 
chajrs,  fastened  to  the  backs  of  the  silleros  by  two  belts  cross¬ 
ing  over  the  chest  and  a  third  passing  over  the  forehead.  On 
a  level  road  these  silleros  have  a  gentle  trot  that  does  not  jar 
the  rider,  keeping  a  pace  of  four  miles  an  hour  for  half  a 
day.  A\  hen  they  are  climbing  in  the  mountains  they  seldom 
slip  or  fall,  and  very  few  accidents  ever  occur  unless  they 
happen  to  get  too  much  agendiente  (rum).  But  it  requires 
time  and  patience  to  accustom  one  to  human-back  riding, 
although  the  natives  of  the  country  prefer  the  silla  to  the 
saddle. 

Bogota  is  half  a  mile  nearer  the  stars  than  the  summit  of 
Mount  Washington  and  at  this  elevation  the  climate  is  de¬ 
lightful,  although  it  is  only  a  few  degrees  from  the  equator. 
The  tropical  fruits  are  here  found  in  abundance,  as  well  as 
the  products  of  the  temperate  zones. 

The  streams  are  full  of  fish,  and  the  mountains  are  full  of 
game ;  but  nevertheless  the  people  prefer  bacon  and  codfish 
to  the  natural  luxuries  of  their  country,  and  even  these  can¬ 
not  be  found  cooked  in  any  palatable  way.  Inchans  will  walk 
for  three  days — men  and  women  together,  and  each  woman 
usually  carrying  a  child  besides — having  heavy  loads  of  prod¬ 
uce  or  long  strings  of  fish  upon  their  backs.  The  woman 
will  sit  all  day  in  the  market-place  peddling  off  her  stuff  to 


BOGOTA. 


253 


customers,  while  the  man  is  patronizing  the  gambling  booths ; 
and  at  night,  if  there  is  any  money  left,  they  will  both  get 
drunk  together,  and  then  spend  two  or  three  more  days  on 
the  road,  walking  home  with  empty  pockets. 


OVER  THE  MOUNTAINS  IN  A  “SILLA.” 


There  are  no  hotels  worth  mentioning  in  Bogota,  only  a 
few  fondas  (or  restaurants)  and  tambos ,  at  which  the  peons 
stop.  There  are  very  few  strangers  travelling  in  the  country, 
and  they  generally  carry  letters  of  introduction,  and  usually 
packages,  to  the  acquaintances  of  their  friends,  who  entertain 
them  hospitably.  The  few  who  visit  the  country  from  the 
United  States  stop  at  a  boarding-house  kept  by  a  lady  from 
New  Hampshire,  whose  late  husband  was  engaged  in  business 


254 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


at  Bogota.  There  are  probably  half  a  dozen  other  citizens  of 
the  United  States  at  the  capital. 

The  original  name  of  the  city  was  Santa  Fe  de  Bogota 
(Bogota  of  the  Holy  Faith).  The  plan  of  the  city  is  irreg¬ 
ular,  and  it  lies  upon  sloping  ground,  with  three  or  four 
streams  running  through  it.  The  houses  are  never  more  than 
two  stories  in  height,  built  of  adobe  and  whitewashed.  The 
ground-floor  has  no  windows,  and  the  rooms  fronting  the 
streets  are  usually  occupied  as  shops,  the  proprietors  living 
up-stairs.  There  is  never  more  than  one  entrance,  which  is 
through  a  passage  into  the  patio,  or  court,  upon  which  all  the 
rooms  open.  The  second  story  is  furnished  with  balconies, 
upon  which  the  women  spend  most  of  their  lives. 

The  cathedral  stands,  as  in  all  Spanish- American  cities, 
upon  the  main  plaza,  and  is  quite  large  and  imposing  as  to 
its  exterior ;  but  the  interior  is  bare,  damp,  and  cold,  and  bar¬ 
ren  of  decoration,  except  a  few  tawdry  wax  or  wooden  images 
of  the  saints.  The  pulpit  is  quite  an  elegant  affair,  being 
handsomely  inlaid  with  tortoise-shell  and  embossed  silver. 
There  are  two  rows  of  seats,  one  on  either  side,  which  are 
occupied  exclusively  by  men.  The  women  all  kneel  through 
the  entire  service,  or  squat  upon  little  pieces  of  carpet  whicli 
they  bring;  with  them. 

A  half-century  or  more  ago  the  erection  of  a  very  beauti¬ 
ful  capitol  of  white  marble,  and  of  the  pure  Grecian  order 
of  architecture,  was  commenced,  but  the  building  still  stands 
unfinished  and  unoccupied,  a  monument  to  procrastination. 
There  have  been  several  spasmodic  attempts  to  complete  it, 
but  they  have  been  interrupted  by  revolutions,  and  the  money 
diverted  or  stolen.  The  President  resides  in  a  dilapidated 
structure,  and  the  several  executive  departments  of  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  occupy  confiscated  monasteries  and  convents,  which, 
under  the  recent  “  concordat  ”  with  Borne,  must  be  restored 
to  the  monks  and  nuns.  There  is  a  fine  university,  a  museum 
containing  many  valuable  and  venerated  historical  relics,  a 
national  library  which  is  composed  mostly  of  ancient  tomes, 
eighty  or  ninety  thousand  in  number,  an  observatory,  said 


BOGOTA. 


255 


to  be  nearer  the  stars 
than  any  other  in  the 
world,  and  a  military 
academy,  organized  by 
Lieutenant  Lemly,  of 
the  United  States  army, 
and  considered  the  best 
on  the  Southern  Conti¬ 
nent. 

Bogota  was  once  a 
city  famous  for  its 
learned  societies  and 
literary  culture,  but 
during  the  last  decade 
the  entire  population 
have  been  devoting 
themselves  to  politics 
and  war.  The  revolu¬ 
tion  of  1884—5  was  pro¬ 
longed  and  disastrous, 
and  there  has  been  lit¬ 
tle,  if  any,  improve¬ 
ment  in  political  or 
commercial  conditions 
since.  The  Liberal 
party,  representing  the 
young  and  progressive 
element,  elected  as 
President  in  1884  Dr. 

Bafael  Nunez,  and  then 
attempted  to  over¬ 
throw  him  because  of 
his  reactionary  tenden¬ 
cies.  Nunez  was  sus-  NATURAL  BRIDGE  OF  PANDI’  COLOMBIA' 
tained  by  the  clerical, 

or  Bourbon  element;  and  having  a  well-organized  army  be¬ 
hind  him,  succeeded  not  only  in  maintaining  his  power,  but  in 


256 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


re-electing  himself  for  a  second  term  with  a  Congress  unani¬ 
mously  in  sympathy  with  his  policy.  The  Constitution  was 
so  amended  as  to  transform  the  Federation  into  an  insepar¬ 
able  union  of  States  like  our  own,  the  name  was  changed 
from  “The  United  States  of  Colombia”  to  “The  Republic 
of  Colombia,”  and  the  President  was  endowed  with  most  ex¬ 
traordinary  powers,  little  short  of  those  exercised  by  the  Shah 
of  Persia  or  the  Czar  of  Russia.  Then  a  treaty,  or  “concor¬ 
dat,”  was  entered  into 
with  the  Vatican,  un¬ 
der  which  the  civil  as 
well  as  the  ecclesias¬ 
tical  authority  of  the 
Pope  is  recognized,  and 
alt  that  the  Liberal 
party  had  accomplish¬ 
ed  during  its  struggles 
for  thirty  years  was 
wiped  out  by  a  single 
stroke  of  the  pen. 

The  extreme  ultra- 
montanism  of  Dr.  Nu¬ 
nez  awakened  a  series 
of  revolutions,  and  re¬ 
sulted  in  his  abdica¬ 
tion  of  the  Presidency ;  D0N  Rafael  nuRez,  ex-president. 
his  successor  being  Dr. 

Holquin,  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  learned  leaders  of 
the  Clerical  party,  who  has  spent  his  life  in  Congress,  in  the 
executive  departments  of  the  Government,  and  in  the  dip¬ 
lomatic  service. 


CARACAS. 


THE  CAPITAL  OF  VENEZUELA. 

The  voyage  from  New  York  to  Venezuela  is  one  of  the 
most  delightful  in  the  world,  and  gives  the  traveller  not  only 
a  nine  days’  taste  of  the  sea,  but  shows  him  a  glimpse  of 
tropical  America,  and  affords  him  an  opportunity  to  study 
the  peculiar  life  and  customs  of  our  Spanish- American  neigh¬ 
bors.  A  splendid  fleet  of  steamers — the  “  Red  D  ”  line,  owned 
by  Messrs.  Boulton,  Bliss  &  Dallett,  of  New  York,  and  sail- 
ins'  under  the  American  flag — furnish  as  comfortable  trans- 
portation  facilities  as  can  be  found  on  any  ocean,  and  the 
journey  can  be  made  in  thirty  days,  eighteen  of  which  will 
be  spent  at  sea  and  at  the  ports  of  the  Antilles,  and  the 
remainder  at  the  capital  and  chief  cities  of  Venezuela. 

If  the  whole  coast  of  South  America  had  been  explored  for 
the  worst  place  in  twenty  thousand  miles  to  build  a  city,  there 
could  not  have  been  found  one  with  greater  natural  disad¬ 
vantages,  which  human  ingenuity  cannot  overcome,  than  La 
Guayra,  the  seaport  of  Caracas,  capital  of  Venezuela.  It  is  a 
town  of  about  six  thousand  inhabitants,  stretched  along  a 
rocky  beach  for  about  two  miles.  Five  hundred  feet  from 
the  water  the  Venezuelan  range  of  the  Andes  Mountains  be¬ 
gins,  and  rises  almost  perpendicularly  to  the  height  of  five 
and  six  thousand  feet.  One  hundred  feet  from  the  houses 
the  bottom  of  the  sea  slopes  off  into  a  hundred  fathoms 
of  water,  and  a  mile  out  it  is  said  to  be  two  thousand  feet 
deep.  There  is  not  the  slightest  excuse  for  a  harbor,  nor 
the  slightest  protection  for  vessels,  which  always  lift  their 
anchors  and  get  out  of  the  way  when  indications  of  a  storm 
are  seen.  The  anchor  lies  on  the  sloping  rock  at  the  bottom 
17 


258 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


of  the  sea,  but  it  lias  to  be  lifted  every  few  hours,  or  the  shift¬ 
ing  sand  will  bury  it  beyond  recovery.  The  surf  always  runs 
very  high  when  a  strong  breeze  is  blowing,  and  under  these 
circumstances  vessels  are  expected  to  load  and  unload.  Two 
wharves,  or  moles,  have  been  built  at  an  acute  angle,  with 
the  narrow  point  open,  and  into  this  the  lighters  are  steered, 
where  they  are  comparatively  easy  while  shifting  cargoes. 
The  vessels  always  stay  out  far  enough  to  avoid  the  surf,  but 
rise  and  fall,  tip  and  rock  with  the  swells  that  go  under  them 
with  the  motion  that  the  billows  of  the  ocean  give. 

o 

Clinging  to  the  little  ledge  between  the  surf  and  the  foot 
of  the  rocks  the  town  stands.  There  is  only  one  street  along 
which  the  warehouses  are  situated,  with  a  rather  imposing- 
custom -house  and  the  invariable  plaza,  or  park,  in  which 
stands  an  equestrian  statue  of  Guzman  Blanco,  the  “  boss  ”  of 
Venezuela.  There  is  said  to  he  a  statue  of  Guzman  in  every 
town  in  the  republic,  erected  by  his  orders,  but  at  the  expense 
of  the  Government,  while  he  was  President.  There  are  three 
of  them  at  the  capital. 

The  guide-books  and  geographies  say  that  La  Guay r a  is  the 
hottest  and  most  unhealthy  place  in  the  world ;  that  it  is  hot¬ 
ter  than  Cairo,  or  Madras,  or  Abushar,  or  Aden,  or  Yuma ;  but 
the  United  States  consul  says  that  this  is  an  absurd  and  inex¬ 
cusable  falsehood,  and  represents  the  city  as  being-  a  most 
attractive  summer  resort.  Humboldt  says  yellow -fever  is 
born  there,  and  that  it  is  the  chief  distributing  point  for  the 
plague ;  the  consul  says  that  there  is  only  occasionally  a  case 
of  fever  of  a  mild  type,  which  is  often  mistaken  for  genuine 
yellow  -  jack,  and  people  ordinarily  recover  from  it,  Hum¬ 
boldt  says,  too,  that  in  his  time  this  was  a  famous  place  for 
tidal  waves ;  that  a  lookout  was  always  stationed  at  the  fort, 
which  sits  in  a  crevice  in  the  mountains  above  the  town,  to 
watch  for  them,  and  when  one  was  seen  coming  a  gun  was 
fired  to  warn  the  vessels,  which  pulled  in  their  anchors  and 
put  out  to  sea  to  escape  being  dashed  against  the  mountains, 
lie  also  says  that  it  was  the  worst  place  for  barnacles  {teredo 
navalis )  in  the  world,  and  that  vessels  were  totally  ruined  by 


CARACAS. 


259 


lying  at  anchor  there  ;  but  Mr.  Bird  says  these  stories  are  all 
humbug,  and  while  it  might  have  been  so  in  Humboldt’s  time, 
the  conditions  are  totally  different  now. 


WAITING  FOR  THE  NEW  YORK  STEAMER. 

Above  the  city,  among  the  rocks,  are  the  ruins  of  old  Span¬ 
ish  forts  which  have  been  the  scenes  of  the  most  terrific  con¬ 
flicts,  and  the  ravines  have  run  with  blood  from  the  carnage 
until  the  sea  has  been  as  red  as  a  sunset.  In  the  days  of  the 
buccaneers  La  Guayra  was  a  favorite  place  for  fighting,  and 
there  being  no  harbor,  the  pirate  kings  were  always  cruising 
after  the  galleons  which  came  there  to  load  with  treasures  for 
the  King  of  Spain.  Upon  the  top  of  a  high  bluff  overlooking 
the  town  is  an  immense  castle,  which  was  at  one  time  the  resi- 


260 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


clence  of  the  Captain-general  of  the  Spanish  colonies,  and  is 
haunted  by  all  sorts  of  legends  and  romantic  traditions.  It  is 
now  in  ruins,  and  the  underground  tunnel  which  formerly 
connected  it  with  the  Military  Barracks,  four  miles  away,  has 
caved  in  at  many  places. 

To  readers  of  that  remarkable  novel,  “Westward,  Ho!” 
by  Charles  Kingsley,  this  castle  has  a  romantic  interest,  as  it 
was  here  where  the  Rose  of  Devon  was  carried  by  her  Span¬ 
ish  lover,  and  where  she  was  sought  and  found  by  Aymas 
and  Frank  Leigh.  But  tilings  are  different  nowadays.  The 
great  American  house  of  Boulton,  Bliss  &  Dallett  have  their 
headquarters  there,  control  the  trade,  send  vessels  to  Hew 
York  every  ten  days  without  molestation  laden  with  coffee, 
and  the  only  blood  that  flows  is  shed  by  the  fleas. 

,  I  have  thus  far  neglected  to  give  due  credit  to  the  tropical 
flea,  to  whose  industry,  enterprise,  and  assiduous  solicitude  all 
travellers  in  Spanish-America  are  indebted  for  a  great  deal 
of  diversion.  At  first  his  attentions  are  somewhat  annoying, 
and  there  is  a  general  disposition  to  conceal  acquaintance  with 
him  ;  but  when  every  man,  woman,  and  child  in  a  company  is 
constantly  scratching,  it  becomes  difficult  to  ignore  conditions 
that  are  common  and  conspicuous,  and  everybody  admits, 
first  with  blushes  and  then  with  brazen  shamelessness,  that 
he’s  got  ’em.  There  is  no  use  of  trying  to  conceal  the  fact. 
They  are  as  common  and  as  plenty  as  flies  in  the  basement 
kitchen  of  a  city  boarding-house,  and  the  Venezuela  coat-of- 
arms  would  more  truly  represent  the  condition  of  the  country 
if  it  showed  a  man  vainly  trying  to  scratch  in  seven  places  at 
once  instead  of  a  wild  horse  dashing  over  the  pampas.  They 
are  little  black  insects,  which  will  get  into  your  clothing  in 
the  most  unaccountable  manner.  You  find  them  in  your 
shoes  and  under  your  shirt-collar;  you  wake  up  in  the  night 
and  think  you  have  somehow  wandered  into  a  plantation  of 
nettles ;  or,  when  you  become  a  little  more  accustomed  to  it, 
dream  regularly  that  you  are  lying  on  the  prickly  side  of  a 
cactus.  To  rub  the  flesh  with  brandy  does  some  good,  but  the 
better  way  is  to  grin  and  bear  it.  The  pests  are  bad  enough 


CAEACAS. 


261 


in  Mexico;  they  are  worse  in  the  West  Indies;  but  in  Vene¬ 
zuela — the  less  said  the  better. 

Between  La  Guayra  and  Caracas  rises  a  mountain  called 
La  Silla  (The  Saddle),  from  the  shape  of  its  summit,  eight 
thousand  six  hundred  feet  above  the  sea,  and  there  are  three 
roads  between  the  two  cities.  The  shortest  is  a  trail  nine 


IN  THE  SUBURBS  OP  LA  GUAYRA. 

miles  long,  through  a  ravine,  which  was  used  by  the  Indians 
at  the  time  of  the  discovery  by  Columbus,  but  it  is  impassa¬ 
ble  for  quadrupeds,  and  dangerous  for  any  but  expert  and 
experienced  mountaineers.  Then  there  is  an  old  wagon-road, 
steep  and  rough,  for  twenty -two  miles,  which  was  constructed 
by  the  Spaniards  after  the  Conquest.  The  third  is  a  tram¬ 
way,  narrow  gauge,  built  along  shelves  which  have  been  exca- 


262 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


vated  in  the  side  of  the  mountains  by  English  engineers  and 
English  capital.  The  train  goes  slowly,  and  there  is  almost 
always  a  track-walker  with  a  spade  upon  his  shoulder  in  sight. 
It  would  not  do  to  run  up  or  down  the  grades  in  the  night,  or 
at  a  speed  greater  than  ten  miles  an  hour;  hence  it  requires 
two  hours  and  a  half  to  make  the  journey,  than  which  there 
is  no  more  interesting  in  the  world.  The  grade  averages  one 
hundred  and  ninety-seven  feet  to  the  mile,  the  highest  altitude 
passed  being  four  thousand  six  hundred  feet;  and  one  does 
not  know  which  to  admire  the  most — the  difficulties  nature 
has  placed  in  the  way  of  man,  or  the  manner  in  which  man 
has  overcome  them. 

Humboldt,  who  came  up  the  wagon-road,  which  runs  almost 
parallel  with  the  tramway  for  most  of  the  distance,  said  that 
the  only  mountain  scenery  which  equals  it  is  that  of  the  Isl¬ 
and  of  Teneriffe,  where  a  fragment  of  the  alpine  grandeur  rises 
from  the  bosom  of  the  sea.  But  one  can  scarcely  imagine  a 
picture  more  imposing  or  impressive  than  is  represented  here. 
Almost  under  the  equator,  with  the  ocean  continually  in  view, 
and  the  mountains  rising  into  the  clouds  all  around  you,  the 
little  engine  puffs  and  pants  like  a  restless  stallion  as  it  climbs 
around  in  the  crevice  that  has  been  dug  for  the  track.  The 
road  is  solidly  constructed,  as  English  railways  always  are,  has 
all  the  modern  appliances  for  safety,  and  has  been  running 
so  far  without  an  accident  ;  but  if  anything  should  break, 
if  the  engineer  should  lose  control  of  the  train  for  an  instant, 
there  would  be  no  need  of  an  inquest — there  would  be  noth¬ 
ing  for  a  coroner’s  jury  to  sit  upon. 

Two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago  that  king  of  buccaneers, 
Sir  Francis  Drake,  paid  a  visit  to  Caracas  under  circumstances 
worthy  of  notice.  It  was  before  the  forts  had  been  built 
around  La  Guayra ;  in  fact,  it  was  owing  to  the  adventure  of 
Sir  Francis  that  the  Spaniards  put  them  there.  This  Mr. 
Drake,  as  all  know  who  are  familiar  with  the  doings  of  Queen 
Elizabeth's  time,  was  a  Britain  bold,  and  had  a  little  affair 
with  the  Spanish  Armada.  Having  disposed  of  the  enemies 
of  the  virgin  Queen  in  the  waters  around  home,  he  started 


CARACAS. 


263 


STILL  MOKE  SUBUKBAN. 


out  on  a  cruise  for  gold  and  glory,  with  “Westward,  Ho!” 
inscribed  upon  the  pennant  that  flew  at  the  royal  top-gallant 
of  his  main-mast.  Mr.  Drake  was  a  gentleman  of  great  valor, 
and  his  antipathy  to  the  Spaniards  and  Catholics  was  pro¬ 
nounced.  He  started  out  from  Plymouth  with  a  gallant  fleet, 
and  when  he  came  across  a  Spanish  galleon  or  a  Spanish  town 
in  the  colonies  he  “  went  for  it  then  and  there.”  The  Rev. 
Charles  Kingsley  has  described  the  voyage,  which  continued 
around  the  globe,  in  a  most  fascinating  manner.  He  followed 


264 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


in  the  wake  of  Sir  Francis  two  hundred  years  after,  and  his 
descriptions  of  South  American  scenes  and  scenery  are  unsur¬ 
passed. 

Drake’s  capture  of  Caracas  was  considered  the  boldest  of 
all  his  achievements.  It  was  in  1595  that  he  stood  in  with  his 
squadron  at  La  Guayra,  and  the  inhabitants,  when  they  real¬ 
ized  the  presence  of  the  man  who  had  devastated  the  West 
Indies,  abandoned  their  homes  and  fled  to  the  mountains, 
carrying  the  news  of  the  arrival  of  the  terrible  English¬ 
man.  The  Alcaldes  of  Caracas  assembled  all  the  men  in  the 
country  who  could  carry  arms,  from  the  ages  of  sixteen  to 
seventy,  and  marched  down  the  wagon-road  along  which  the 
lailway  runs,  to  stay  the  invader.  Half  way  down  they  pre¬ 
pared  an  ambush  and  lay  in  wait  to  annihilate  him.  Drake 
landed  at  La  Guayra  with  seventy  men,  captured  a  fellow 
named  \  illalpando,  who,  by  gifts  of  treasure,  agreed  to  guide 
him  up  the  old,  dangerous,  and  abandoned  Indian  trail.  So, 
while  the  gallant  Alcaldes  with  all  the  men  of  Caracas  were 
marching  down  one  road  Sir  Francis  was  marching  up  anotli- 
ei ,  vv hich  they  thought  he  would  not  dare  to  climb.  ^Neither 
met  an  enemy,  and  while  the  Spaniards  were  lying  in  ambush 
Sir  Francis  was  hanging  the  traitorous  Yiflalpando  in  what 
is  now  the  Plaza  Bolivar,  drinking  the  wine  from  the  Spanish 
cellars,  ravishing  the  women,  and  plundering  the  houses  of  the 
citizens.  But  one  old  hidalgo,  named  Alonzo  de  Ledeoma,  who 
remained  behind,  denounced  the  invaders  from  the  threshold 
of  his  plundered  house,  declared  them  to  be  cravens,  and  dared 
the  bravest  of  the  Englishmen  to  meet  him  in  single  combat. 
Si i  I  rancis  and  his  crew  jeered  at  the  brave  old  man,  and  told 
him  to  send  for  his  fellow-citizens  who  had  gone  down  the 
mountain  -  road ;  but  he  insisted  on  fighting  them  alone,  and 
was  accommodated.  They  killed  him  as  tenderly  as  they 
could,  set  fire  to  the  city,  and  then,  laden  with  all  the  porta¬ 
ble  property  of  value  in  Caracas,  marched  down  the  ravine 
to  La  Guayra  again,  and  sailed  away  with  a  million  dollars’ 
worth  of  treasure,  captured  without  the  loss  of  a  single  man. 
The  city  of  Caracas,  the  capital  of  Venezuela,  as  well  as 


CARACAS 


265 


its  metropolis,  and  according  to  geographies  one  of  the  most 
delightful  places  of  residence  in  the  world,  lies  in  a  narrow 
valley  between  two  high  ranges  of  mountains,  which  lift  their 
heads  nearly  nine  thousand  feet  on  one  side,  and  something 
over  six  thousand  on  the  other.  To  one  standing  in 'the  cen¬ 
tre  of  the  city  it  seems  to  be  entirely  surrounded  by  peaks,  to 
lie  in  a  pocket  or  deep  depression ;  but  from  the  top  of  “  Cal¬ 
vary,”  a  hill  which  used  to  be  a  cemetery,  but  is  now  a  park, 
one  can  see  two  roads  that  lead  out,  two  passes  through  the 
mountains  whence  the  river  comes  and  whither  it  flows.  The 
natural  beauties  of  the  place  are  very  marked,  and  make  it 
plain  why  Yenezuelans  are  proud  of  their  chief  city.  There 
is  an  old  gentleman  at  Caracas,  Mr.  Middleton  by  name,  who 
for  over  fifty  years  has  been  in  the  diplomatic  service  of  Great 
Britain.  He  has  served  at  Paris,  at  Madrid,  at  Mexico,  at 
Buenos  Ayres,  at  Brazil,  and  his  last  station  was  as  Minister 
to  Yenezuela.  When  the  age  came  which  required  him  to  be 
placed  upon  the  retired  list  he  would  not  go  back  to  England, 
but  wished  to  remain  there,  where,  he  says,  it  is  but  a  step 
to  Paradise.  “  I  have  been  here  since  1869,”  he  remarked ; 
“  I  have  seen  this  country  in  war  and  in  peace,  and  have  expe¬ 
rienced  two  earthquakes,  the  last  of  which  killed  three  hun¬ 
dred  people,  but  there  is  no  place  on  earth  possessing  so  many 
natural  and  climatic  attractions.  All  I  ask  is  to  end  my  days 
in  this  eternal  spring.” 

But,  speaking  of  earthquakes,  Caracas  is  a  favorite  place 
for  them.  The  town  was  entirely  destroyed  in  1812,  and 
more  or  less  of  it  has  been  shaken  down  at  intervals  since. 
The  residents  are  quite  sensitive  on  the  subject,  and  insist 
that  more  lives  are  lost  in  the  United  States  by  fires  and 
cyclones  and  railroad  accidents  than  in  Yenezuela  by  earth¬ 
quakes.  They  talk  of  the  great  fires  in  Boston  and  Chicago 
as  being  infinitely  more  to  he  dreaded  than  the  earthquake 
of  1812,  which  shook  every  building  from  its  foundation,  and 
buried  twenty  thousand  people  in  the  ruins.  There  is  no 
doubt  a  constant  danger  from  volcanic  fires,  but  the  people 
are  not  subjected  to  some  of  the  ills  we  are  heir  to. 


266 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  present  Government,  under  the  inspiration  of  Guzman 
Blanco,  is  making  earnest  efforts  to  secure  immigrants,  and  is 
offering  the  most  alluring  inducements  to  settlers  upon  the 
public  lands.  Venezuela  is  not  thickly  populated.  It  has 
more  territory  than  France,  Spain,  and  Portugal  together, 
and  is  about  one-seventh  as  large  as  the  United  States.  The 
population  in  1884  was  2,121,000,  with  only  a  slight  increase 
for  ten  years.  The  country  could  sustain  a  population  of 
100,000,000,  for  the  soil  is  exceedingly  rich,  and  produces  two 
crops  a  year  without  fertilization  or  irrigation. 

There  are  three  zones,  three  climates  within  the  limits  of 
Venezuela — from  cold  too  intense  to  he  endured  by  man  to 
the  greatest  degree  of  heat  known  to  the  earth’s  surface. 
Although  the  capital  is  only  ten  degrees  north  of  the  equa- 
to;\  the  temperature  is  delightful,  and  it  is  easy  to  realize  the 
truth  of  the  statement  that  Caracas  enjoys  a  perpetual  spring. 
The  thermometer,  which  stands  about  sixty  degrees  at  mid¬ 
night,  rises  to  seventy -five  or  eighty  at  noon,  hut  there  is 
always  a  fresh  breeze  blowing  either  from  the  ocean  or  from 
the  snow-capped  Andes  to  the  south-west. 

There  was  no  printing-press  in  Venezuela  until  after  the 
triumph  of  Bolivar,  and  the  colonies  were  not  encouraged  in 
the  arts  or  the  sciences  or  any  form  of  industry.  The  most 
profitable  crops  of  sugar  and  coffee  were  kept  a  monopoly  for 
the  crown  of  Spain,  and  the  people  found  it  to  their  advan¬ 
tage  to  produce  no  more  than  they  needed  for  their  own  sus¬ 
tenance,  as  every  ounce  of  surplus  was  seized  by  the  Govern¬ 
ment.  Then,  after  independence  was  established,  the  rulers 
of  the  country  imitated  their  former  oppressors  and  kept  the 
people  down,  robbing  them  in  every  possible  way,  until  revo¬ 
lution  after  revolution  was  the  result,  and  local  wars  followed 
each  other  so  rapidly  that  the  country  was  deluged  with 
blood.  Discontent  was  universal,  and  discontent  always  re¬ 
sults  in  conspiracies  and  revolutions.  Bolivar  the  Liberator 
(pronounced  Bo-lee-var),  the  Washington  of  the  country,  was 
driven  into  exile,  and  died  in  poverty  in  a  neighboring  coun¬ 
try.  But  Bolivar  is  honored  there  now,  and  the  public  ven- 


CARACAS. 


267 


eration  is  even  greater,  if  possible,  than  that  shown  for  Wash¬ 
ington  and  Lincoln  in  the  United  States.  He  died  of  a  broken 
heart  in  Santa  Marta,  Colombia,  and  was  originally  buried 
there,  but  ten  years  after  his  death  Paez,  the  man  who  over¬ 
threw  the  Liberator  and  drove  him  into  exile,  thought  it 
would  be  a  popular  thing  to  bring  his  bones  home.  This  was 
done  with  great  ceremony,  and  they  were  buried  in  the  cathe- 


ON  A  COFFEE  PLANTATION. 


268 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


aral  fronting  Plaza  Bolivar,  upon  which  his  equestrian  statue 
stands.  But  his  heart  is  in  Colombia  still.  It  was  removed 
from  the  body,  and  remains  in  an  urn  in  the  Santa  Marta 
cathedral. 

In  the  museum  of  the  University,  in  a  beautiful  room  kept 
as  sacred  as  the  Holiest  of  Holies,  is  a  collection  of  relics  as 
precious  to  the  people  as  fragments  of  the  true  cross.  There 
are  Bolivar’s  clothing,  his  saddle,  his  spurs,  his  boots,  and 
books,  and  every  little  memento  of  him  that  could  be  gath¬ 
ered  up,  including  the  coffin  in  which  his  remains  were  orig¬ 
inally  buried.  There  are  paintings  representing  his  past 
achievements  on  earth  and  his  present  glory  in  heaven,  where 
he  is  surrounded  by  cherubim  and  seraphim  covering  his  head 
with  laurels.  The  most  precious  of  all  the  relics  is  a  portrait 
of  'Washington,  sent  to  Bolivar  in  1828  by  George  Washing¬ 
ton  Parke  Custis,  with  this  inscription :  “  This  picture  of  the 
Liberator  of  North  America  is  sent  by  his  adopted  son  to  him 
who  acquired  equal  glory  in  South  America.” 

When  Guzman  Blanco  turned  an  old  cathedral  into  a  pan¬ 
theon  for  the  burial  of  distinguished  dead,  the  remains  of 
Bolivar  were  for  a  third  time  removed,  and  finally  depos¬ 
ited  in  a  beautiful  marble  tomb.  Upon  it  is  a  statue  of  the 
hero,  represented  as  standing  with  a  military  cloak  around 
him — a  noble  and  dignified  face.  On  one  side  is  a  statue  of 
“  Plenty,”  scattering  corn  from  a  tray ;  on  the  other  a  repre¬ 
sentation  of  “  Justice.”  The  inscription  on  the  monument  is  : 

SIMON  BOLIVAR. 

Cineres  h i c  condit;  honorat  grata  et  memor  patria. 

1852. 

There  is  another,  an  equestrian  statue  to  Bolivar,  in  the 
centre  of  the  city,  surrounded  by  a  park  called  by  his  name, 
upon  which  fronts  “The  Yellow  House,”  as  the  residence  of 
the  President  is  called,  and  several  of  the  Federal  palaces. 
The  standard  coin  of  the  country  is  called  by  his  name,  and 
is  of  a  value  equal  to  the  franc  of  France.  The  coins  and 


CARACAS. 


269 


paper -money  bear  his  portrait  as  well  as  his  name,  and  a 
pathetic  attempt  is  made  by  the  people  to  show  after  his 
death  the  gratitude  they  should  have  paid  to  the  starving 
exile. 

Not  far  from  the  statue  of  Bolivar  stands  a  heroic  figure 
in  bronze,  with  no  inscription  upon  its  pedestal  but  the  name 
“Washington.”  It  was  erected  to  celebrate  the  centenary 
of  Bolivar’s  birth,  and 
its  dedication  was  ac¬ 
companied  by  a  cere¬ 
mony  which  has  nev¬ 
er  been  equalled  in 
magnificence  on  the 
southern  continent — 
a  tribute  to  the  man 
who  “  filled  one  world 
with  his  benefits  and 
all  worlds  with  his 
name.”  There  are 
shops  and  stores,  ho¬ 
tels  and  streets  named 
after  Washington, 
and  his  memory  is 
reverenced  as  much 
as  at  home.  But  this 
people,  so  instinctive¬ 
ly  republican,  so  pa¬ 
triotic  and  apprecia¬ 
tive  of  freedom,  never 
knew  what  liberty 
was  until  within  the  last  ten  years.  Since  then  the  priests 
have  been  dethroned  and  the  schools  have  been  made  free. 

Guzman  Blanco  may  be  a  tyrant,  but  he  has  produced  results 
which  are  blessing  the  people.  Until  he  became  President 
the  Church  ruled  the  people  as  it  formerly  ruled  Mexico,  but, 
like  Juarez  in  the  latter  country,  he  went  to  radical  and 
excessive  measures  to  overthrow  its  tyranny.  He  confiscated 


270 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Church  property,  drove  out  the  nuns  and  Jesuits,  seized  the 
convents,  turned  them  into  hospitals  and  schools,  and  made 
the  most  venerable  monastery  a  pest-house  for  lepers  and 
small-pox.  He  deprived  the  Church  of  the  right  to  hold  or 
acquire  property,  seized  the  cemeteries,  and  opened  them  to 
the  burial  of  the  dead  of  whatever  faith.  He  even  went  so 
far  as  to  expel  the  archbishop  because  the  latter  refused  to 
sing  a  Te  Deum  when  a  monument  to  the  man  who  did  all 
tins  was  erected.  With  such  audacity  and  by  such  means  has 
Guzman  Blanco  deprived  the  Church  of  its  former  power  and 
prestige.  His  opponents,  like  those  of  Juarez  and  Diaz  in 
Mexico,  are  chiefly  Churchmen  (Bourbons),  but  as  he  exer¬ 
cises  no  mercy  when  his  will  is  violated,  they  are  in  a  state 
of  the  most  abject  submission. 

'  The  schools  of  Venezuela  are  supported  by  the  Federal 
Government  from  the  revenues  of  the  Post-office  and  a  trade 
license  system.  Formerly  the  mails  now  handled  by  the  rail 
roads  were  carried  by  Indian  runners  over  the  mountains 
from  the  coast,  and  so  from  Caracas  inland  still  farther,  as 
is  the  case  yet  where  there  are  no  railroads.  A  runner 
carries  a  package  weighing  about  sixteen  pounds  strapped 
upon  his  back.  Ilis  clothing  is  sufficient,  as  he  leaves  a  city, 
to  preserve  the  last  requirement  of  decency.  When  he  gets 
alone,  however,  he  deposits  his  fig-leaf  in  some  convenient 
place,  and  rapidly  “walks  in  maiden  meditation,  garment 
free,”  until  he  approaches  his  destination,  when  he  finds  the 
uniform  belonging  to  that  end  of  the  post-route,  and  dons  it 
for  remaining  courtesies.  These  runners  are  faithful,  prompt, 
serviceable,  and  of  great  endurance. 

At  the  post-office  you  can  get  two  sorts  ol  stamps.  The 
proceeds  from  foreign  postage  go  into  the  general  treasury. 
Another  stamp  is  used  for  local  postage,  for  letters  addressed 
to  persons  within  the  town  or  State,  and  is  required  upon 
commercial  paper,  upon  all  deeds,  mortgages,  leases,  contracts, 
notes,  receipts,  certificates,  etc.  The  proceeds  of  its  sale  are 
devoted  to  the  support  of  the  schools,  which  are  free  to  all, 
but  are  usually  attended  by  the  children  of  the  lower  classes. 


CARACAS. 


271 


The  negroes  are  particularly  eager  to  learn,  and  the  average 
attendance  of  the  blacks  is  very  much  greater  than  that  of 
white  children,  and  out  of  proportion  of  the  population.  The 
ratio  of  illiteracy  is  greater  among  the  whites  than  among 
the  negroes,  and  people  are  beginning  to  complain  that  serv¬ 
ants  and  laborers  are  being  spoiled  by  education. 

There  is  a  Telephone  Exchange,  with  four  hundred  and  sev¬ 
enty-five  subscribers,  with  branch  lines  to  La  Guayra  and  oth¬ 
er  cities.  The  instrument  is  very  popular  in  all  the  tropical 
countries,  where  any  method  by  which  physical  exertion  may 
be  avoided  receives  both  public  and  private  approbation.  The 
Spaniard  shouts  “  Oyez ,  oyez  !  ”  (Hear  ye,  hear  ye !)  when  he 
goes  to  the  telephone,  the  same  words  that  are  used  by 
bailiffs  to  open  courts  of  law  in  the  United  States,  and  it 
sounds  quite  odd  not  to  hear  the  familiar  “Holloa!”  after 
the  bell  jingles.  The  telephone  is  extensively  used  in  private 
houses ;  and  as  the  etiquette  of  the  country  prohibits  ladies 
from  shopping  or  going  upon  the  streets  without  an  escort, 
they  find  Mr.  Bell’s  invention  a  great  convenience.  They 
visit  with  their  friends  and  gossip  over  the  wire,  order  their 
meats  and  groceries  from  the  market,  and  direct  the  store¬ 
keepers  to  send  up  samples  of  the  goods  they  want  to  buy. 
The  electric  light  is  quite  common  also,  the  Opera-house  being 
illuminated  by  it,  as  well  as  the  President’s  palace,  or  “  Yellow 
House,”  as  it  is  called,  in  imitation  of  our  President’s  mansion 
at  Washington,  and  other  public  buildings.  The  Opera-house 
is  subsidized  by  the  Government  during  the  season.  There  is 
always  a  good  company  here.  Performances  are  given  twice 
a  week,  and  the  subsidy  received  by  the  present  management 
is  forty  thousand  dollars  for  the  season,  with  free  use  of  the 
house  and  scenery,  which  belongs  to  the  Government.  We 
attended  a  presentation  of  “  Robert  le  Diable,”  and  it  was  as 
well  rendered  as  the  average  operatic  performance  in  the 
United  States.  The  theatre  is  a  magnificent  building  of 
stone,  standing  in  a  plaza  or  park ;  and  although  the  interior 
is  rather  bare  of  decorations,  and  the  attempt  to  secure  the 
greatest  amount  of  coolness  gives  it  a  barn  -  like  air,  in  its 


272 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


equipments  and  arrangement  the  house  is  equal  to  any  in 
New  York.  The  attendance  was  rather  small,  or  looked  so 
in  the  great  auditorium,  which  seats  two  thousand  five  hun¬ 
dred  people,  and  the  President,  who  is  said  to  be  a  constant 
devotee  of  the  opera,  was  absent. 

When  Guzman  Blanco  drove  out  the  nuns  and  monks  he 
made  good  use  of  their  property.  One  monstrous  Carmel¬ 
ite  monastery,  covering  an  entire  block,  was  confiscated,  re¬ 
modelled,  and  turned  into  a  university,  which  is  supported 
by  the  Government  and  attended  by  the  youth  of  Venezuela 
professionally  inclined.  Science,  law,  medicine,  and  all  the 
ologies  but  theology  are  taught  here,  and  the  schools  are 
well  managed  and  of  a  high  grade.  Attached  to  the  uni¬ 
versity  is  a  public  library  and  museum,  under  the  care  of 
Professor  Ernst,  a  distinguished  German  scientist.  This  in¬ 
stitution  is  supported  by  the  revenues  of  a  coffee  planta¬ 
tion  confiscated  from  the  monks  and  now  belonging:  to  the 
Government. 

Across  a  small  park  from  the  university,  in  which  stands 
the  inevitable  statue  of  Guzman  Blanco,  is  what  is  known  as 
the  “Palacio  Federal,”  bearing  the  inevitable  marble  tablet 
to  keep  before  the  minds  of  the  people  that  it  was  erected 
by  that  “  illustrious  American.”  It  is  the  largest,  handsomest, 
and  most  useless  building  in  Caracas,  and  one  of  the  finest 
in  South  America.  Like  all  the  rest  of  the  improvements  it 
stands  upon  confiscated  ground,  where  once  was  a  convent, 
the  oldest  and  largest  in  the  country,  'whose  massive  walls 
were  stanch  enough  to  endure  the  great  earthquake  of  1812. 
Guzman  had  a  great  time  pulling  it  down,  but  he  is  a  man 
of  enormous  will  and  energy,  and  when  he  resolves  upon  any¬ 
thing  it  is  as  good  as  done. 

The  Palacio  Federal  is  the  Capitol  of  Venezuela.  It  covers 
an  entire  square  of  about  two  acres,  built  around  a  circular 
park  in  which  are  fountains,  statuary,  and  beautiful  flowers, 
and  which  is  reached  by  grand  archways  on  either  side. 
Owing  to  an  earthquake  tendency  in  these  parts  the  build¬ 
ings  in  Caracas  are  never  more  than  two  stories  high,  and 


CARACAS. 


273 


seldom  more  that  one.  This  is  the  tallest  structure  in  the 
city,  having  two  full  stories,  with  a  wide  balcony  stretching 
around  the  interior  walls.  At  one  end  is  a  lofty  elliptical¬ 
shaped  room,  two  hundred  feet  long,  and  from  forty  to  one 
hundred  in  width,  without  a  pillar.  This  is  the  place  where 
official  balls  and  receptions  are  held,  and  the  V enezuelans  are 
much  given  to  that  sort  of  thing.  There  is  no  carpet,  the 
18 


INTERIOR  COURT  OE  A  CARACAS  HOUSE. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


274 


floor  being  of  inlaid  woods  of  different  colors,  and  there  has 
been  no  attempt  at  frescoing,  and  the  walls  and  ceilings  are 
of  the  most  ghastly  white,  so  that  the  furniture  of  gilt,  and 
upholstered  in  the  most  gorgeous  brocades  and  satins,  has  a 
somewhat  startling  effect.  It  is  arranged,  as  all  Venezuelan 
furniture  is,  in  rows  along  the  walls.  This  room  is  used  as  a 
national  portrait  -  gallery  also,  and  there  is  a  collection  of 
about  sixty  pieces,  as  good  as  one  often  finds  and  better  than 
we  have  at  Washington,  representing  the  notable  men  in  the 
history  of  the  republic.  On  one  side  is  a  heroic  portrait  of 
Bolivar,  and  on  the  other  one  of  Guzman  Blanco,  looking  as 
grand  and  proud  as  if  he  had  made  the  world.  Guzman  was 
the  author  and  creator  of  this  gorgeousness,  and  the  people 
are  not  apt  to  forget  it;  but  he  was  strictly  impartial  in 
making  the  collection  of  portraits,  and  if  the  men  whose  faces 
look  down  upon  us  were  to  meet  in  the  room  where  their  por¬ 
traits  face  each  other  with  fraternal  cordiality,  there  would 
be  such  a  carnival  of  blood  and  bruises  as  has  never  been 
seen  since  the  celebrated  encounter  of  the  Kilkenny  cats. 

In  one  of  the  wings  of  the  Palacio  Federal  sits  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  country,  and  in  the  other  are  the  offices  of  the 
Interior  and  War  Departments,  while  at  the  opposite  end  of 
the  building  are  the  halls  of  the  National  Legislature,  the 
Senate  and  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  —  two  lofty,  barn-like 
rooms,  each  about  sixty  feet  square,  and  entirely  destitute 
of  decoration,  except  the  never-ending  portraits  of  Bolivar 
and  Guzman.  The  members  sit  in  ordinary  cane -seated 
office -chairs,  without  desks  or  tables,  the  presiding  officers 
hieing  placed  in  little  coops  perched  very  high  up  on  the  walls, 
with  a  shelf  for  the  tribune  on  one  side,  and  another  for  the 
clerk  on  the  other. 

Congress  meets  on  the  20th  of  February  of  each  year.  The 
Upper  House  is  composed  of  two  senators  from  each  State, 
elected  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people,  and  serving  for  four 
years.  The  Lower  House  has  one  representative  for  each 
twenty-five  thousand  population,  elected  for  two  years,  also 
by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people.  The  first  duty  of  Congress 


CAEACAS. 


275 


when  it  assembles  is  to  elect  from  its  own  members  a  council 
of  sixteen,  and  this  council  selects  a  President  of  the  repub¬ 
lic,  with  two  Vice-Presidents  from  its  members,  by  ballot. 
The  Council  is  perpetual,  and  supposed  to  be  always  in  session, 
their  constitutional  duty  being  to  serve  as  a  check  upon  the 
President.  They  can  veto  his  acts,  but  he  cannot  veto  theirs. 
They  have  power  to  enact  legislation  during  the  Congres¬ 
sional  recess,  which  is  known  as  Decrees  of  the  Council,  and 
is  supposed  to  be  reviewed  by  Congress  at  the  following  ses¬ 
sion.  The  Council  elects  the  Federal  judiciary  and  confirms 
the  appointments  of  the  President,  thus  sharing  in  the  execu¬ 
tive  as  well  as  the  legislative  power  of  the  Government,  and, 
to  a  certain  extent,  in  the  judicial,  as  they  have  the  authority 
to  remove  as  well  as  appoint  judges. 

Such  is  the  constitutional  form  of  government  in  Venezuela ; 
but  if  common  rumor  is  worthy  of  behef,  its  exercise  is  some¬ 
what  mythical.  Guzman  Blanco  is  supposed  to  carry  Con¬ 
gress,  Council,  President,  and  courts  all  under  his  own  hat. 
He  nominates  senators  and  members  of  Congress,  and  his 
candidates  are  invariably  elected.  He  makes  out  a  list  of 
candidates  for  the  Council,  and  they  are  chosen.  Then  the 
man  whom  he  names  is  made  President.  There  is  a  consti¬ 
tutional  provision  prohibiting  the  re-election  of  a  President, 
so  that  Guzman  can  serve  in  that  capacity  every  alternate 
two  years,  the  intervening  time  being  filled  by  some  friend 
of  his  choice,  who  is  said  to  be  entirely  subject  to  his  will. 

The  official  residence  of  the  President  faces  the  central 
plaza,  or  Plaza  Bolivar,  and  is  known  as  the  Yellow  House, 
but  is  not  at  present  occupied,  being  too  small  to  contain  the 
family  of  General  Crespo,  who  has  seven  children.  Guzman 
Blanco  never  occupied  it,  for  the  same  reason,  as  he  has  nine 
children.  The  Yellow  House  is  a  gaudy  affair  of  two  stories, 
with  only  twelve  rooms,  including  four  official  parlors,  a  mag¬ 
nificent  state  dining-room,  servants’  quarters,  and  all  that  sort 
of  thing.  Official  dinners  are  given  there  nowadays,  and  oc¬ 
casionally  the  President  receives  foreign  ambassadors  in  the 
parlors. 


27G 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  city  of  Caracas  is  a  Federal  district,  like  the  city  of 
Washington,  with  a  governor  appointed  by  the  President. 
His  office  is  in  a  memorable  room,  corresponding  to  Inde- 


SrANISII  MISSIONARY  WORK. 

pendence  Hall  in  Philadelphia.  It  was  formerly  the  chapel 
of  an  old  convent,  confiscated  like  the  rest,  and  the  remainder 
of  the  building  is  used  for  the  police  headquarters,  the  munici¬ 
pal  court,  and  other  local  authorities. 

This  narrow  little  room  which  the  Governor  occupies  is  the 
same  in  which  the  Declaration  of  Venezuelan  Independence 
was  signed,  and  upon  its  walls  hangs  a  picture  conunemorat- 
iny  the  event.  Strangely  enough,  beside  this  painting  of  the 
decree  of  Liberty  hangs  a  heavy  gilt  frame  containing  the 
banner  Pizarro  carried  in  the  conquest  of  Peru — the  rarest 
and  most  interesting  relic  in  all  South  America.  It  is  about 
four  feet  square,  of  heavy  pink  silk,  faded  almost  to  white, 
embroidered  with  gold  by  the  fair  hands  of  Queen  Isabella 
herself,  the  design  being  the  combined  escutcheons  of  Aragon 


CARACAS. 


277 


and  Castile,  and  it  is  still  in  an  excellent  state  of  preservation. 
It  is  with  the  keenest  irony  of  contrast  that  this  age-begrimed 
banner  should  hang  in  the  room  where  the  first  voice  was 
raised  against  the  tyranny  it  represented ;  here,  beside  the 
voice,  scarcely  legible  now  to  the  eye,  but  to  the  mind  speak¬ 
ing  with  mighty  force  the  long  story  of  Spanish  oppression, 
and  illustrating  the  first  feeble  and  unsuccessful  protest.  This 
banner  was  the  emblem  of  cruelty,  avarice,  and  lust,  and  under 
its  dainty  folds  more  crimes  were  committed  in  the  name  of 
Christ  and  civilization  than 
an  eternity  of  perdition 
could  adequately  punish. 

Of  equally  striking  sig¬ 
nificance  in  the  room  where 
this  banner  hangs  exists  a 
permanent  rebuke  and  pro¬ 
test  against  the  religion  in 
whose  name  these  crimes 
were  committed.  The  Gov¬ 
ernment  refuses  to  recog¬ 
nize  the  authority  of  the 
Romish  Church  even  in  the 
sanctity  of  marriage,  and  a 
civil  ceremony  is  essential 
to  legitimate  wedlock.  The 
bride  and  groom  may  go  to 
the  church  afterwards,  but 
they  must  come  here  first, 
and  in  the  presence  of  the 
civil  magistrate  make  the 
vows  to  love,  honor,  and 
obey  until  death  do  them 
part,  or  their  issue  will  have  woman’s  chief  occupation. 
no  right  of  inheritance.  The 

Church  has  threatened  to  excommunicate,  but  the  decree  of 
Congress  is  inexorable,  and  the  archbishop  has  finally  yielded 
submission.  When  a  couple  want  to  be  married,  the  groom 
18* 


27$ 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


goes  to  the  Governor  or  his  deputy  and  secures  a  license,  notice 
of  which  is  given  for  two  weeks  in  a  printed  form,  which  is 
tacked  upon  a  bulletin-board  beside  the  entrance  to  the  office. 
Banns  are  also  required  to  be  published  for  the  same  period  in 
the  official  newspaper.  Then,  if  no  one  appeal’s  with  cause 
by  which  the  two  should  not  be  united,  the  bridal-party  comes 
to  the  office  of  the  Governor,  and  there  make  their  vows  and 
sign  the  contract  which  makes  them  man  and  wife. 

The  following-  is  the  form  of  marriage  contract : 

O  O 

“Parish  Tribunal,  Caracas,  Ja.  18th,  1885. 

“This  day  have  appeared  before  me,  presiding  over  this  tribunal,  Serapio 
Antonio  Gutierez  and  Felipa  Rivas,  and  declared  that  they  are  unmarried: 
that  he  is  twenty-five  years  of  age  and  that  she  is  fifteen;  that  she  is  a  resi¬ 
dent  of  this  parish,  and  that  he  is  a  resident  also;  that  his  occupation  is  that 
of  a  merchant,  and  that  her  occupation  is  that  peculiar  to  the  home.  They 
declare  that  they  have  not  changed  their  places  of  residence  during  the  last 
six  months,  and  that  they  desire  to  enter  into  marriage. 

“In  performance  of  the  foregoing  announcement,  which  has  been  adver¬ 
tised  for  fifteen  days,  as  the  law  directs,  in  the  most  public  places  of  this  city, 
and  no  one  having  appeared  to  deny  their  right  to  become  husband  and  wife, 
they  therefore  on  this  day  agree  to  become  such,  and  have  taken  upon  them 
the  vows  required  and  recognized  by  the  law.  Therefore,  this  day,  at  seven 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  assembled  with  them  in  the  municipal  palace,  I,  Gen¬ 
eral  Basidio  Gabaute,  President  of  the  Eastern  Federal  District,  by  order  of 
the  Governor  and  President  of  the  Municipal  Council,  in  the  presence  of 
Felipe  Aguerra,  an  engineer,  citizen  of  this  Republic,  and  Luis  R.  Tores,  mer¬ 
chant  and  citizen  of  the  Republic,  have  declared  the  evidence  of  their  free 
will  and  right  to  matrimony  sufficient  under  the  law. 

“Then  was  read  to  them,  as  above  named,  section  thirteen  of  the  law  of 
the  Republic,  which  explains  and  sets  forth  the  reciprocal  rights  and  duties 
of  the  husband  and  wife.  Immediately  thereafter  I  asked  Serapio  Antonio 
Gutierez  the  question,  1  Do  you  wish  to  take  Felipa  Rivas  as  your  wife?’  who 
then  answered  in  a  distinct  voice,  ‘  Yes;  I  want  her,  and  take  her  thus.’  Then 
I  asked  Felipa  Rivas,  ‘Do  you  take  Serapio  Autonio  Gutierez  to  be  your  hus¬ 
band?’  who  in  the  same  manner  answered, ‘Yes;  I  want  him,  and  take  him  thus.’ 

“Addressing  myself  to  both,  I  said,  ‘You  are  now  joined  in  matrimony, 
perpetual  and  indissoluble,  and  you  are  required  to  support  and  assist  each 
other,  and  provide  each  other,  and  the  children  that  may  be  born  to  you,  with 
the  necessaries  of  the  home,  and  be  to  each  other  a  comfort  and  a  blessing. 

“The  above,  having  been  properly  witnessed,  was  signed  by  the  married 
couple  in  my  presence,  and  immediately  entered  in  the  book  of  civil  registry. 

“SERAPIO  ANTONIO  GUTIEREZ.' 

“FELIPA  RIVAS. 

“Felipe  Aguerra,  Engineer.  )  Witnmes 

“  Luis  R.  Tores.  1 

“Julio  Baez  Pumar,  Cleric.  Basidio  Gabaxte,  Prefect." 


CARACAS, 


279 


Under  a  glass  cylinder,  on  a  stand  beneath  the  banner  of 
Pizarro,  is  a  large  book  bound  in  scarlet  plush,  with  heavy 
gold  clasps  and  hinges,  in  which  the  contracts  are  kept  and 
the  record  of  Venezuelan  wedlock  preserved.  All  the  Catho¬ 
lics  go  at  once  to  the  church  from  the  municipal  palace,  and 
repeat  their  vows,  with  the  benediction  of  the  priest,  but  this 
is  not  essential.  At  this  same  office  the  record  of  births  and 


A  BODEGA. 


280 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


deaths  is  also  kept  in  the  strictest  manner.  Formerly,  as  in 
Cuba,  the  legitimacy  of  a  child  and  permission  to  bury  the 
dead  could  be  acknowledged  by  the  Church  alone,  but  the 
republic  has  confiscated  all  the  cemeteries,  and  opened  the 
gates  to  those  of  every  faith,  Jew  or  Gentile,  Protestant  or 
Catholic. 

The  Government  is  very  exacting  in  many  respects.  One 
day  a  little  boy  was  stolen.  The  only  clew  was  given  by 
some  children,  who  saw  them  playmate  seized  by  a  man  who 
drove  away  with  him  in  a  hack.  Every  hackman  in  the  city 
was  arrested  and  thrown  into  prison ;  every  coach  was  seized, 
with  its  horses  and  harness,  and  notice  given  by  the  police 
authorities  that  not  a  wheel  should  be  turned  in  the  streets 
until  the  child  was  found.  These  summary  measures  made 
every  coach-owner  a  detective,  and  finally  the  hackman  who 
was  engaged  in  the  abduction  confessed,  and  the  child  was 
recovered  without  the  payment  of  the  ransom  demanded. 

The  police  arrangements  in  Caracas  are  excellent;  there 
are  no  robberies  or  murders,  and  one  seldom  sees  an  intoxi¬ 
cated  man  upon  the  streets.  Liquor  is  sold  at  nearly  all  the 
groceries,  or  bodegas,  as  they  are  called,  and  the  aguardiente 
which  the  common  people  use  is  the  most  vicious  sort  of  fire¬ 
water  ;  but  the  punishment  of  offenders  is  extreme,  and  those 
who  have  not  sufficient  self-control  to  drink  moderately  are 
taken  in  charge  by  their  friends  at  the  first  sign  of  intoxica¬ 
tion.  There  are  several  street-car  lines  in  Caracas,  and  the 
conductors  carry  a  horn,  which  they  blow  upon  approaching 
a  street-crossing,  as  is  the  practice  in  Mexico.  The  cars  are 
all  open,  and  are  small,  being  capable  of  holding  not  more 
than  twelve  or  fourteen  people. 

The  burial  of  prominent  men  is  attended  with  great  pomp 
and  ceremony,  and  it  is  customary  to  have  those  who  are 
present  at  the  funeral  sign  a  testimonial  to  the  worth  of  the 
dead,  or  pass  a  series  of  resolutions  setting  forth  their  merits 
and  distinguished  traits.  These  tributes  are  placed  in  the 
coffin,  in  order  that  in  case  the  remains  should  ever  be  dis¬ 
interred,  posterity  would  know  the  character  of  him  whose 


CARACAS. 


281 


bones  they  handled.  When  a  member  of  the  family  dies,  it 
is  customary  to  drape  the  furniture  and  pictures  of  the  parlor 
in  mourning,  and  to  let  it  remain  so  for  a  full  year. 

The  etiquette  governing  the  habits  of  the  ladies  is  the  same 
that  exists  in  Mexico  and  other  Spanish- American  countries, 
it  not  being  proper  for  them  to  appear  alone  upon  the  streets 


A  GLASS  OF  AGUARDIENTE. 

or  in  public  places.  They  go  to  mass  accompanied  by  a 
colored  woman  as  a  duenna,  who  carries  a  chair  for  her  mis¬ 
tress  to  sit  upon  during  service,  there  being  no  seats  or  pews 
in  the  churches.  In  the  evening  women  are  seen  in  large 
numbers  upon  the  streets,  and  at  the  plaza  where  the  band 
plays  they  swarm  in  gayly  dressed  crowds.  The  ladies  of 
Venezuela  are  said  by  travellers  to  rank  next  to  those  of  Peru 


282 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEEICA. 


for  beauty,  although  it  would  he  as  much  as  a  man’s  life  is 
worth  to  intimate  such  a  thing  to  the  brothers  and  lovers  of 
Caracas,  who  very  naturally  and  properly  concede  nothing  in 
this  respect  to  “the  daughters  of  the  sun,”  as  the  Peruvians 
are  called.  The  Venezuela  girl  has  more  animation,  more 
vivacity  than  her  sister  across  the  Cordilleras,  and  perhaps 
more  intelligence,  for  she  possesses  more  liberty  of  thought 
and  action  than  the  ladies  in  other  countries  of  Spanish 
America,  and  more  attention  is  paid  to  her  education.  The 
climate  of  Caracas  is  similar  to  that  of  Lima,  and  although 
the  city  is  almost  under  the  equator,  it  has  an  altitude  of  eight 
thousand  feet,  and  is  surrounded  by  snow -clad  mountains 
which  temper  the  heat  of  the  tropics  and  make  a  temperature 
like  that  of  June  the  whole  year  round.  The  ladies  have 
therefore  the  same  clear,  rich  complexion  of  an  olive  tint,  and 
the  same  great  “  melting  eyes.”  Their  features  are  usually 
of  artistic  perfection  and  their  figures  Venus-like.  They  have 
no  national  costume,  .but  dress  in  the  latest  Paris  styles.  The 
milliners  and  modistes  of  Caracas  go  to  Paris  twice  a  year, 
and  the  wives  and  daughters  of  the  rich  men  of  the  country 
order  their  dresses  there.  There  is  more  society  than  in 
Peru,  and  during  the  winter  season  Caracas  is  very  gay.  At 
the  opera  the  boxes  are  invariably  filled  with  ladies  as  hand¬ 
somely  dressed  and  as  highly  bejewelled  as  can  be  seen  at  the 
Metropolitan  Opera  House  or  the  Academy  of  Music  in  New 
York. 

There  are  a  large  number  of  American  families  in  Caracas, 
and  several  Venezuelan  gentlemen  have  married  in  the  United 
States.  One  of  the  loveliest  girls  in  Venezuela  is  the  grand¬ 
daughter  of  “Josh  Billings”  —  the  late  Henry  W.  Shaw, 
"twenty  years  ago  or  more  a  merchant  at  Caracas  named 
Sen  or  Don  Santana  sent  his  son  to  Poughkeepsie  to  be 
educated,  and  while  he  was  there  he  met  and  married  the 
daughter  of  Mr.  Shaw.  The  young  man  has  succeeded  to  the 
business  of  his  father,  and  is  now  at  the  head  of  one  of  the 
largest  mercantile  houses  in  the  republic. 

Mrs.  Guzman  Blanco  is  the  handsomest  woman  in  the 


CARACAS. 


283 


country.  She  is  a  tall,  slender  brunette,  with  brilliant  eyes 
and  complexion  and  a  sylph-like  figure.  Her  husband  wor¬ 
ships  her,  and  she  is 
said  to  be  the  only 
person  in  the  land  to 
whom  the  Dictator’s 
iron  will  has  ever 
yielded.  She  is  quite 
as  famous  for  her 
loveliness  of  disposi¬ 
tion  as  for  her  per¬ 
sonal  attractions,  and 
her  charity  and  gen¬ 
erosity  are  proverbial. 

Every  artist  in  Vene¬ 
zuela  has  painted  her 
portrait  a  number  of 
times,  and  in  the  room 
which  Guzman  Blan¬ 
co  uses  as  an  office 
there  are  seven  pict¬ 
ures  of  her,  in  various 
costumes  and  atti¬ 
tudes,  and  two  busts 
in  marble.  Mrs.  Guz¬ 
man  Blanco  is  the 
leader  in  fashion  as 
well  as  society,  and 
all  her  dresses  are 
made  by  Worth.  Each 
spring  and  fall,  when 
they  are  received  from 
Paris,  the  ladies  of 
Caracas  are  invited  to 
examine  them.  In  a 

room  adjoining  the  chamber  are  a  number  of  large  glass- 
cases,  like  those  in  a  modiste’s  shop,  in  which  her  treasures 


A  VENEZUELA  BELLE. 


2S4 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


always  hang;  and  whenever  a  reception  is  given  by  the  Dic¬ 
tator  this  wardrobe  is  open  to  visitors  —  a  new  and  novel 
idea,  but  one  which  gives  the  ladies  of  Venezuela  great  pleas¬ 
ure.  Mrs.  Guzman  Blanco  was  in  New  York  with  her  hus¬ 
band  a  couple  of  years  ago,  where  her  beauty  attracted  much 
attention. 

The  Venezuelans  are  the  most  courteous  people  that  can 
lie  imagined.  Impoliteness  is  unpardonable.  The  clerk  with 
whom  you  deal  over  his  counter  expresses  his  wish  that  you 
may  live  long  and  prosper,  and  thanks  you  gratefully  for  giv¬ 
ing  him  the  pleasure  of  showing  his  goods,  whether  you  pur¬ 
chase  anything  or  not.  When  a  gentleman  meets  a  lady,  be 
she  his  sweetheart  or  his  grandmother,  he  always  says  he  “  is 
lying  at  her  feet,”  and  he  would  rather  be  shot  than  pass 
before  her.  They  are  not  the  semi-barbarians  some  people 
in  the  northern  continent  suppose.  They  have  accomplish¬ 
ments  which  ought  to  make  the  rest  of  America  ashamed. 
Usually  they  are  able  to  speak  three  or  four  different  lan¬ 
guages,  have  refined  tastes  in  art  and  music,  and,  wdiile  they 
lack  ingenuity,  and  usually  do  things  in  the  hardest  way,  are 
nevertheless  possessed  of  the  keenest  perceptive  faculties,  and 
seem  almost  to  read  your  thoughts.  It  is  not  difficult  to 
make  known  your  wants,  even  if  you  cannot  understand  a 
word  of  their  language.  They  do  not  allow  smoking  in  the 
street-cars  and  public  places,  as  in  Mexico  and  Havana,  and 
although  it  is  the  privilege  of  the  masculine  gender  to  stare 
at  the  feminine  with  all  the  eyes  they  have,  the  men  are 
never  rude,  and  ask  the  pardon  of  a  beggar  when  they  refuse 
to  give  him  alms. 

But  the  people  always  put  the  locks  upon  the  'wrong  door, 
and  wrong  side  up.  When  they  build  a  house,  it  seems  as  if 
they  studied  the  most  difficult  mode  of  construction.  They 
erect  solid  walls  first,  and  then  chisel  out  cavities  for  the  tim¬ 
bers  to  rest  in.  There  are  no  stoves  or  chimneys,  and  char¬ 
coal  is  the  only  fuel.  Gas  is  produced  at  four  dollars  and  a 
half  per  thousand  feet,  from  American  coal  which  costs  twenty 
dollars  a  ton.  There  is  no  glass  in  the  windows,  but  a  grat- 


CAKACAS. 


285 


ing  of  iron  bars  keeps  out  intruders,  and  heavy  wooden  shut¬ 
ters  shut  out  the  air  and  light.  Such  blinds  as  are  common 
in  North  America  would  be  the  most  admirable  protection, 
but  no  one  has  ever  introduced  them,  and  the  people  will  con¬ 
tinue  to  swelter  behind  solid  shutters  until  the  end  of  time. 

The  rooms  of  houses  are  not  plastered,  but  the  joists  are 


THE  LOWER  FLOOR  OF  THE  HOUSE. 


286 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


all  exposed  The  floors  are  of  tile,  and  paper  is  pasted  upon 
the  walls,  which  are  of  cement  and  stone.  In  the  court  of 
every  house  are  the  most  beautiful  flowers.  Tuberoses  stow 

«/  o 

on  great  trees,  and  the  oleander  is  as  common  as  the  lilac  in 
New  England.  The  parks  look  like  the  botanical  gardens  of 
the  North,  and  in  the  evening  are  always  thronged  with  gen¬ 
tlemen  and  ladies  until  a  late  hour. 

Guzman  Blanco,  the  uncrowned  king  of  Venezuela,  the 
man  whose  authority  is  more  absolute  in  this  republic  than 
is  that  of  any  king  in  Europe  in  his  own  dominions,  is  a 
native  of  Caracas,  where  he  was  born  fifty -five  years  ago. 
II  is  father  was  the  private  secretary  of  Bolivar,  and  at  one 
time  a  member  of  his  cabinet.  lie  died  only  a  short  time 
since,  and  his  funeral  was  a  pageant  which  was  surpassed  in 
the  history  of  the  country  only  by  the  demonstration  at  the 
removal  of  Bolivar’s  remains.  lie  was  active  in  the  affairs 
of  State  almost  until  his  death ;  now  an  exile,  now  a  minister, 
vibrating  between  the  extremes  of  power  and  poverty,  as  the 
party  to  which  he  was  attached  was  up  or  down ;  and  under 
this  confusion,  in  the  atmosphere  of  revolution,  young  Guz¬ 
man  was  educated.  lie  added  the  name  of  Blanco — that  of 
his  mother — to  his  baptismal  name,  to  distinguish  him  from 
his  father,  and  became  Guzman  Blanco ;  but  he  is  more  often 
called  General  Guzman  by  the  people  nowadays.  When  a 
mere  boy  lie  became  a  soldier,  and  had  his  ups  and  downs 
until  the  year  1874,  when  he  led  a  successful  revolution 
against  the  existing  authority  and  became  President.  Since 
that  year  several  attempts  have  been  made*  to  overturn  him, 
but  none  has  succeeded,  and  being  a  man  to  win  friends  as 
well  as  to  acquire  power,  his  political  strength  has  grown 
with  years  until  his  authority  is  now  absolute. 

There  is,  and  always  will  be,  a  difference  in  opinion  as  to 
his  personal  character  and  motives.  That  he  is  vain  and  im¬ 
perious  is  admitted,  and  that  many  of  his  acts  would  not  be 
tolerated  by  such  a  people  as  those  who  live  in  the  United 
States  cannot  be  questioned ;  but,  conceding  everything  his 
enemies  may  say  as  true,  it  is  nevertheless  a  fact  that  since 


CARACAS. 


287 


Guzman  Blanco  has  been  ruler  over  this  republic  it  has  pros¬ 
pered  and  had  peace — something  it  never  had  before.  There 
have  been  varied  and  extensive  improvements ;  the  people 
have  made  rapid  strides  in  progress ;  they  have  been  given 
free  schools  and  released  from  the  bondage  of  the  Church; 
the  credit  of  the  Government  has  been  improved,  its  debts 
reduced,  and  the  interest  to  its  creditors  is  for  the  first  time 
in  history  paid  promptly,  in  full  and  in  advance.  The  moral 
as  well  as  the  mental  and  commercial  improvement  of  the 
people  has  been  the  result  of  his  acts,  and  as  long  as  he  lives 
their  lives  and  property  will  be  safe. 

A  man  under  whose  influence  such  progress  has  been  made 
can  be  pardoned  for  the  delinquencies  of  which  Guzman 
Blanco  is  accused ;  and  while  his  vanity  is  amusing,  it  never¬ 
theless,  in  the  forms  it  takes,  illustrates  the  pride  he  feels  in 
his  achievements,  and  the  realization  of  the  importance  of  his 
career  in  the  history  of  his  republic. 

Upon  the  pedestal  of  one  of  the  five  statues  he  has  erected 
to  his  own  memory  appear  the  words : 

TO  THAT  ILLUSTRIOUS  AMERICAN, 

THE  PACIFICATOR  AND  REGENERATOR  OF  THE  UNITED 
STATES  OF  VENEZUELA, 

GENERAL  ANTONIO  GUZMAN  BLANCO. 

In  these  words  the  purpose  and  ambition  of  the  man  ap¬ 
pear.  To  be  the  “  Pacificator  and  Begenerator  ”  where  Boli¬ 
var  was  the  Liberator  is  worthy  the  ambition  of  any  man ; 
and  he  who  will  erect  a  statue  of  Washington  as  the  ideal  his 
people  should  carry  in  their  minds  cannot  be  without  a  good 
motive  somewhere  in  his  consciousness.  Future  historians, 
when  they  look  back  upon  the  career  of  Guzman  Blanco,  will 
be  more  generous  than  contemporaneous  critics,  and  will  for¬ 
get  that  he  erected  these  statues  to  himself. 

There  are  three  statues  to  Guzman  now  standing  in  Cara¬ 
cas,  but  nobody  would  believe  it  if  the  number  of  tablets 
erected  in  his  honor  were  told.  Y on  can  scarcely  look  in  any 


288 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


direction  without  being-  officially  informed  in  letters  carved 
in  enduring-  marble  that  this,  that,  or  the  other  thing  was 
done  by  the  order  of,  or  under  the  administration  of,  that 
illustrious  American, etc. 

One  night  all  these  statues  and  many  of  the  tablets  were 
pulled  down.  It  is  a  curious  story,  and  the  United  States  has 
what  the  play-bills  call  a  contemporaneous  human  interest  in 
the  affair,  for  the  casus  belli  was  a  Boston  girl. 

Guzman,  when  he  was  President,  had  a  nephew  of  whom 
lie  was  very  fond,  and  who  was  made  by  him  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  Venezuelan  army.  lie  was  engaged  to  an 
American  girl,  whose  parents  lived  in  Caracas  then,  but  now  in 
Boston.  For  some  reason  the  girl’s  father  and  the  President 
had  a  violent  quarrel,  and  the  former  was  notified  that  it 
Would  be  to  his  welfare  to  leave  the  country.  In  these  Span¬ 
ish- American  countries  a  man  who  values  his  life  never  awaits 
a  second  invitation  of  this  sort,  and  the  Boston  gentleman, 
with  his  family,  took  the  next  steamer.  They  were  accompa¬ 
nied  to  La  Guayra  by  the  young  general,  who  made  no  secret 
of  his  sympathy  with  the  father  of  his  fiancee,  and  expressed 
his  views  of  the  President’s  tyranny  in  a  very  emphatic  man¬ 
ner.  Guzman  sent  for  the  young  man,  and  advised  him  to 
hold  his  tongue  and  let  the  girl  go.  The  passionate  lover 
gave  his  uncle  some  very  plain  words,  which  ended  in  his 
being  offered  a  choice  between  hjs  commission  in  the  army 
and  liis  North  American  sweetheart.  He  broke  his  sword 
over  his  knees,  threw  the  severed  blade  at  Guzman's  feet,  and 
tore  off  his  epaulettes.  That  night  all  the  statues  of  Guzman 
fell  down.  It  was  discovered  that  the  bronze  had  been  sawed 
where  the  feet  met  the  pedestals,  and  a  rope  used  to  tumble 
them  over.  Of  course  the  young  general  was  suspected,  and 
he  followed  his  girl  to  Boston  to  escape  liis  uncle’s  wrath. 
The  romance  ended  in  a  marriage,  as  all  good  love  stories  do, 
and  after  residing  in  Boston  the  couple  returned  to  Caracas, 
where  they  now  live  —  she  one  of  the  most  attractive  and 
accomplished  ladies  in  the  city,  and  he  an  exporter  of  coffee 
and  chocolate.  Guzman  has  never  forgiven  him,  and  some  of 


CARACAS. 


289 


AN  OLD  PATIO. 

his  friends  think  his  life  is  not  safe  there,  but  he  laughs  at 
their  timidity. 

Guzman’s  private  residence  is  the  finest  in  Venezuela,  and 
a  full-length  portrait  of  James  G.  Blaine  adorns  his  parlor. 
19 


290 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


That  apartment  is  very  handsomely  decorated  and  uphol¬ 
stered,  the  work  having  been  done  by  artists  imported  from 
Paris;  but  there  is  such  a  vivid  brilliancy  in  the  frescoing, 
the  fabrics,  and  the  furniture  that  one  wishes  these  tropical 
people  who  have  so  much  money  had  a  little  more  refinement 
of  taste. 

One  of  the  most  striking  incidents  in  the  career  of  this 
extraordinary  man  was  his  defiance  of  the  Pope.  To  realize 
its  full  significance,  it  must  be  understood  that  \  enezuela  has 
always  been  a  Catholic  country ;  that  there  was  not  a  Prot¬ 
estant  church  in  the  whole  country ;  that  Guzman  was  him¬ 
self  born  and  baptized  a  Catholic,  and  that  under  the  Consti¬ 
tution  the  archbishop  was  a  member  of  the  National  Council. 
Guzman  first  suppressed  all  the  monasteries  and  nunneries  of 
the  country,  and  confiscated  their  property,  which  was  con¬ 
verted  into  houses  of  useful  education.  Then,  in  1876,  he  sent 
to  Congress  a  message,  in  which  he  said : 

“I  have  taken  upon  myself  the  responsibility  of  declaring  the  Church  of 
Venezuela  independent  of  the  Roman  Episcopate,  and  ask  that  you  further 
order  that  parish  priests  shall  be  elected  by  the  people,  the  bishop  by  the 
rector  of  the  parish,  and  the  archbishops  by  Congress,  returning  to  the  uses 
of  the  primitive  Church  founded  by  Jesus  Christ  and  His  apostles.  Such  ai 
law  will  not  only  resolve  the  clerical  question,  but  will  be  besides  a  grand 
example  for  the  Christian  Church  of  republican  America,  hindered  in  her 
march  towards  liberty,  order,  and  progress  by  the  policy,  always  retrograde, 
of  the  Roman  Church,  and  the  civilized  world  will  see  in  this  act  the  most 
characteristic  and  palpable  sign  of  advance  in  the  regeneration  of  ^  enezuela. 

‘  ‘  Guzman  Blanco.  ” 

To  this  the  Congress  replied : 

“Faithful  to  our  duties,  faithful  to  our  convictions,  and  faithful  to  the 
holy  dogmas  of  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ,  of  that  great  Being  who  con¬ 
served  the  world’s  freedom  with  His  blood,  we  do  not  hesitate  to  emancipate 
the  Church  of  Venezuela  from  that  Episcopacy  which  pretends,  as  an  infalli¬ 
ble  and  omnipotent  power,  to  absorb  from  Rome  the  vitality  of  a  free  people, 
the  beliefs  of  our  consciences,  and  the  noble  aspirations  and  destinies  -which 
pertain  to  us  as  component  parts  of  the  great  human  family.  Congress  offers 
to  your  Excellency  and  will  give  you  all  the  aid  you  seek  to  preserve  the 
honor  and  the  right  of  our  nation,  and  announces  uow  with  patriotic  pleasure 
that  it  has  already  begun  to  elaborate  the  law  which  your  Excellency  asks  it 
to  frame.” 


CARACAS. 


291 


This  declaration  of  independence  caused  a  great  sensation 
in  the  Catholic  Church,  and  excommunication  was  threatened 
to  all  who  failed  in  their  allegiance  to  the  V atican ;  but  nei¬ 
ther  the  Government  nor  the  people  were  to  be  intimidated, 
and  the  Pope  has  since  tried  diplomatic  measures  to  restore 
union  with  the  Mother  Church.  There  has  been  a  nuncio 
there  for  several  years,  and  he  resides  there  still,  but  is  mak¬ 
ing  no  progress. 

Macuto  is  the  Newport  of  Venezuela  —  the  summer,  or 
rather  the  winter  resort  of  the  wealthy  and  aristocratic,  who 
find  the  temperature  of  Caracas  trying  upon  their  constitu¬ 
tions,  and  seek  sea-air,  sea-bathing,  and  flirtations  under  the 
palms.  It  is  six  miles  from  La  Guavra,  and  is  reached  by 
a  tramway,  over  which  a  little  dummy  engine  goes  shriek¬ 
ing  every  half  hour,  and  by  a  broad  boulevard  which  would 
furnish  as  delightful  a  drive  as  that  upon  the  beach  at 
Long  Branch  were  it  not  for  the  dust,  which  is  almost 
hub-deep,  and  nearly  suffocates  one.  La  Guayra,  as  I  have 
stated,  has  the  blissful  reputation  of  being  the  hottest  place 
on  earth,  shut  in  as  it  is  by  mountains  on  all  sides  but 
the  west,  and  blistering  not  only  in  the  direct  heat  but  in 
that  reflected  from  the  rocks,  which  is  a  great  deal  more 
oppressive  —  a  pocket  which  no  air  except  the  west  wind, 
the  hottest  of  all,  can  reach.  But  Macuto  is  around  the 
corner,  one  might  say — around  a  point  of  rocks,  and  upon 
a  little  peninsula  that  stretches  out  from  the  beach,  where 
it  can  catch  not  only  all  the  breezes  that  ruffle  the  sea,  but 
the  winds  that  come  from  the  mountains,  down  a  ravine 
through  which  flows  a  beautiful  stream  as  cool  as  one  in  the 
Adirondacks. 

It  was  Guzman  Blanco,  of  course,  who  found  out  this  little 
settlement  of  fishermen,  built  the  sea-wall  to  protect  the  pen¬ 
insula,  made  the  boulevard  from  the  city,  built  the  railroad, 
brought  plenty  of  fresh  water  from  the  mountains,  and  built 
bath-houses  there;  so  that  the  people  of  La  Guayra  can  in 
twelve  minutes  leave  the  hottest  place  on  earth  for  one  where 
the  air  is  always  fresh  and  cool,  where  yellow -fever  never 


92 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


comes,  and  where  a  good  salt-water  bath  can  be  had  for  the 
sum  of  six  cents  in  Venezuela  money. 

1  he  bathing  arrangements  are  quite  odd.  The  sharks  are 
so  numerous  that  it  is  dangerous  to  bathe  in  the  surf,  and 
nobody  cares  to  have  his  leg's  bitten  off ;  so  a  semicircular 
pen  o!  piling  has  been  erected,  at  government  expense,  reach¬ 
ing  about  a  hundred  feet  into  the  sea.  Through  this  piling 
tlie  surf  beats  fiercely.  The  pen  is  divided  in  the  centre  by  a 
high  wall,  one  side  being  for  the  ladies  and  the  other  for  the 
gentlemen.  At  the  shore  end  is  a  miniature  castle  of  stone, 
likewise  divided  into  two  rooms,  with  a  row  of  benches  around 
the  wall,  and  hooks  over  them  on  Avhich  to  hang  clothes. 
Everybody  bathes  au  naturel ;  bathing-dresses  are  unknown. 
You  pay  five  cents  for  a  ticket,  and  ten  cents  for  a  sheet,  which 
ismsed  as  drapery  and  as  a  towel,  and  then  undress.  The  at¬ 
tendant  hands  you  the  sheet  when  you  are  stripped,  and,  con¬ 
cealing  your  nakedness  with  that  protection,  you  climb  down 
the  stone  stair- way,  hang  your  sheet  over  the  railing,  and 
plunge  in.  The  water  is  glorious,  warm  and  salty,  so  dense 
that  it  will  almost  bear  you  on  the  surface,  and  deep  enough 
to  swim  and  dive.  When  you  have  had  enough  of  it,  you 
climb  up  the  stairs,  seize  your  sheet  and  throw  it  around  you, 
and  sit  on  the  bench  until  you  are  dry  enough  to  resume  your 
clothes.  Some  of  the  more  modest  ladies,  or,  they  sav,  those 
who  have  no  charms  to  display,  wear  in  the  water  a  sort 
of  night-dress  made  of  towelling,  but  the  pretty  ones  wear 
nothing  but  smiles — not  even  a  blush. 

During  the  day  everybody  stays  in-doors  after  the  bathing- 
hour,  which  is  about  nine  o'clock  in  the  morning.  The  fash¬ 
ionable  get  up  about  eight  o'clock,  drink  a  cup  of  coffee,  eat  a 
roll,  go  to  mass,  saunter  down  to  the  bath,  and  return  in  time 
to  dress  for  breakfast,  the  most  elaborate  meal  of  the  day, 
which  is  served  about  eleven  o'clock.  The  menu  offers  soup, 
fish,  game,  steaks,  sweetmeats,  and  wine.  Then  the  people  loll 
around  till  dinner,  which  comes  after  five  o'clock  in  the  after¬ 
noon,  and  is  a  repetition  of  the  breakfast,  except  that  roasts 
are  served  instead  of  steaks.  After  dinner  everybody  goes 


CARACAS. 


293 


to  the  grand  promenade  along  the  beach.  The  band  plays, 
the  ladies  are  gayly  dressed,  the  gentlemen  twirl  their  canes, 
admire  their  small  feet  in  the  moonlight,  and  chatter  like  a 
lot  of  magpies.  The  promenading  and  gossiping  are  kept  up 
until  midnight,  except  twice  a  week,  on  Thursdays  and  Sun¬ 
days,  when  there  is  dancing  at  the  hotel  or  at  some  one  of  the 
private  residences.  The  season  lasts  from  October,  when  the 
rainy  period  ends,  until  April,  when  it  begins ;  but  families 
from  Caracas  and  other  cities  seldom  remain  at  Macuto  more 
than  three  or  four  weeks.  The  charge  at  the  hotel  is  four 
dollars  per  day — about  three  dollars  and  a  quarter  in  Ameri¬ 
can  money.  If  some  one  would  build  a  first-class  American 


CHOCOLATE  IN  THE  HOUGH. 


hotel  here,  and  provide  the  comforts  that  are  found  in  the 
States,  it  would  be  a  paying  investment ;  and  I  would  not 
wonder  if  a  subsidy  would  be  paid  by  the  Government. 

The  coffee  plantations,  or  quintas ,  as  they  are  called,  extend 
from  the  coast  far  up  into  the  mountains,  and  are  very  pro¬ 
lific.  The  people  here  claim  to  raise  the  best  coffee  in  the 
world ;  and  it  is  a  singular  fact  asserted  by  the  exporters 
that  only  the  poorer  grades  go  to  the  United  States,  while 
all  of  the  better  quality  is  sent  to  France  and  Germany. 
Just  why  this  is  so  no  one  explains,  further  than  repeating 
the  remark  so  often  made  that  the  Americans  do  not  like 
good  coffee. 


294 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Another  curious  fact  is  that  chocolate  costs  more  here  than 
it  does  in  New  York— here  where  it  is  grown  and  manufact¬ 
ured,  for  very  little  of  the  genuine  article  is  sold  in  our  market. 
When  the  cocoa-heans  are  thoroughly  dried  in  the  sun  they 
are  shipped  in  gunny  sacks  to  market,  where  the  chocolate 
manufacturer  gets  hold  of  them.  lie  grinds  them  into  a  fine 
powder  of  a  gray  color  that  looks  like  Gr raham.  flour,  mixes  it 


SEPARATING  THE  COCOA-BEANS. 

with  the  pure  juice  of  the  sugar-cane,  called  pa/pUlon ,  and  fla¬ 
vors  the  mixture  with  the  juice  of  the  vanilla  -  bean.  After 
being  boiled  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  this  is  poured  into 
moulds  and  allowed  to  harden,  when  it  becomes  the  chocolate 
of  commerce.  The  Caracas  chocolate,  as  all  the  product  of 
Venezuela  is  termed,  is  considered  the  best  in  the  world.  It 
costs  sixty-five  cents  per  pound  at  the  factories  there,  but 


CARACAS. 


295 


can  be  purchased  for  forty-five  or  fifty  cents  a  pound  in  New 
York.  The  best  cocoa -beans  are  forty  cents  a  pound  here, 
but  the  Yankee  manufacturer  has  a  way  of  increasing  their 
weight  and  reducing  their  value  by  adulteration.  Pipe-clay 
is  cheap  and  heavy,  and  it  is  supposed  to  be  harmless.  It 
weighs  five  times  as  much  as  cocoa,  and  as  the  profit  in  lager- 
beer  is  in  the  foam,  so  is  the  profit  in  chocolate  in  the  pipe¬ 
clay,  or  whatever  substance  it  may  be  mixed  with. 

Puerto  Cabello  and  Maracaibo  are  the  two  great  exporting 
markets  of  Venezuela,  from  which  the  greater  part  of  the 
coffee  and  chocolate  is  shipped.  The  former  place  is  famous 
for  being  one  of  the  most  unhealthful  in  the  world,  and  the 
bay  upon  which  it  is  situated  is  called  Golfe  Triste  (the  gulf 
of  tears),  because  of  the  terrible  scourges  which  are  born  in 
its  miasmas.  The  bottom  of  the  bay  is  said  to  be  literally 
covered  with  the  bones  of  those  who  have  been  heaved  over¬ 
board  for  the  lack  of  a  better  place  to  bury  them.  The  ghost 
of  that  most  famous  of  all  freebooters,  Sir  Francis  Drake, 
haunts  the  place,  for  he  died  here  of  yellow-fever,  and  his 
body  lies  in  a  leaden  coffin  thirty  fathoms  deep  in  the  sea. 
The  place  is  called  Puerto  Cabello  (the  port  of  the  hair),  on 
the  pretence  that  ships  are  so  safe  in  its  harbors  that  they 
might  be  tied  to  their  moorings  with  a  single  hair.  This  is 
something  of  an  exaggeration,  but  nevertheless  the  harbor  is 
the  best  on  the  Spanish  Main,  and  has  such  abrupt  banks 
that  a  vessel  can  be  run  up  against  the  shore  anywhere  to 
take  her  cargo. 

Off  the  coast  of  Puerto  Cabello  lies  the  island  of  Curacoa, 
the  quaintest,  most  novel,  and  altogether  most  interesting 
place  on  the  Spanish  Main.  It  is  a  fragment  of  Amsterdam, 
set  upon  a  coral  rock  in  the  middle  of  the  sea.  It  has  always 
been  a  colony  of  Holland,  with  all  the  picturesque  quaintness, 
stupidity,  and  wooden-shoe-oddity  of  the  fatherland.  Leaving 
the  tropic  scenes  of  Spanish  America  at  bedtime  and  waking 
up  in  Holland  in  the  morning  makes  you  feel  like  one  of 
Plato’s  troglodytes,  who  were  raised  in  a  cavern  and  then 
suddenly  dropped  into  the  world.  You  cannot  quite  allay 


296 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  feeling  that  something  has  been  done  to  yon ;  the  appear¬ 
ance  of  things  has  changed  so  suddenly  and  completely  that 
you  do  not  feel  quite  right  about  it. 

Curagoa  looks  like  a  toy  town  built  by  a  child  of  uncom¬ 
monly  incoherent  mind,  by  taking  blocks  out  of  a  box  and 
setting  them  up  in  irregular  rows  regardless  of  size,  shape,  or 
color.  The  general  elfect  is  a  nightmare  of  gable-ends  and 
dormer-windows  painted  a  bright  yellow.  Immense  ware¬ 
houses  with  great  gaping  doors  and  windows  stand  beside 
quaint  little  Dutch  cottages  surrounded  by  beautiful  gardens, 
and  stores  several  stories  high,  of  the  most  elaborate  ai’chi- 


PUEKTO  CABELLO. 


tecture,  rise  beside  low  structures  as  flat  fronted  and  as  square 
cornered  as  a  dry-goods  box  with  a  Dutch  oven  on  top  of  it. 
Quaint  dormer-windows  stare  at  you  from  the  most  unex¬ 
pected  places ;  hideous  yellow  towers,  like  the  legs  of  some 
petrified  monster  sticking  up  into  the  air,  meet  your  view  in 
all  directions  ;  and  great  prison-like  fortresses,  with  port-holes 
like  the  eyes  of  needles,  and  ponderous  doors  lapping  over 
like  the  covers  of  a  banker’s  ledger,  appear  with  surprising 
frequency.  The  streets  are  narrow,  crooked,  and  rough.  They 
begin  in  the  most  unreasonable  places  and  go  nowhere.  Some 
of  them  start  broadly,  but  wind  around  like  the  track  of  a 


CARACAS. 


297 


serpent,  growing  narrower  and  narrower  until  they  suddenly 
end,  like  the  edge  of  a  wedge,  against  a  stone  wall. 

Curacoa  is  a  great  place  for  business,  although  it  i§  so  quiet 
and  sleepy  that  one  might  think  the  whole  town  had  taken 
a  dose  of  laudanum.  It  is  the  distributing  point  of  a  large 
amount  of  commerce,  a  harbor  of  refuge  for  vessels  in  dis¬ 
tress,  the  haven  of  political  exiles  from  South  America,  and 
the  hot-bed  of  conspiracies  and  revolutions  against  neighbor¬ 
ing  republics. 

South  of  Curacoa  is  Maracaibo,  with  its  curious  lake,  in 
which  are  towns  built  upon  stilts,  that  give  the  name  of  Ven¬ 
ezuela,  or  Little  V enice,  to  this  land.  The  explorers,  like  tour¬ 
ists  of  modern  times,  were  given  to  tracing  resemblances  in 
America  to  what  they  were  familiar  with  in  Europe,  and  they 
imagined  these  huts  rising  on  piles  above  the  water  looked  like 
the  city  of  canals  hnd  gondolas.  But  there  is  no  more  resem¬ 
blance  to  Venice  than  to  Chicago,  and  the  name  of  Vene¬ 
zuela,  like  that  of  the  continent,  is  a  falsehood  which  the 
world  has  allowed  to  stand  uncontradicted. 


QUITO. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  ECUADOR. 


On  the  west  coast  of  South  America  is  found  the  perfec¬ 
tion  of  sea-travel  —  fine  ships,  fair  weather,  and  a  still  sea. 
Although  one  floats  under,  or  rather  over,  the  equator,  the 
atmosphere  is  cool,  the  breezes  delicious,  and  the  water  as 
smooth  as  a  duck-pond.  The  Pacific  Navigation  Company  is 
a.  British  institution,  founded  by  an  American,  Mr.  William 
Wheelwright,  of  New  York,  which  has  been  sending  vessels 
from  Panama  to  Liverpool,  through  the  Straits  of  Magellan, 
for  over  forty  years,  and  has  not  only  a  monopoly  of  trans¬ 
portation  on  the  coast,  but  subsidies  from  the  British  Gov¬ 
ernment  and  the  various  South  American  States  whose  ports 
it  enters.  It  charges  enormous  rates  for  freight  and  passen¬ 
gers,  the  tariff  from  Valparaiso  being  forty  dollars  per  ton 
for  freight  and  two  hundred  and  ninety-seven  dollars  per  head 
for  passengers  for  a  distance  about  as  great  as  from  New 
York  to  Liverpool ;  but  the  company  gives  its  patrons  the 
best  the  country  affords,  and  until  the  recent  steam  grey¬ 
hounds  were  turned  out  to  race  across  the  ocean,  had  the 
finest  and  largest  ships  afloat.  One  set  of  vessels  run  from 
Panama  to  Valparaiso  where  a  change  is  made  to  another 
set,  built  for  heavy  seas,  which  go  through  the  Straits  of 
Magellan,  via  Rio  de  Janeiro,  to  Liverpool. 

Those  which  ply  along  the  west  coast  from  Panama  south¬ 
ward  are  built  for  fair  weather  and  tropical  seas,  with  open 
decks  and  airy  state-rooms,  through  which  the  breezes  bring 
refreshing  coolness.  Such  vessels  would  not  live  long  in  the 
Atlantic  nor  in  the  Caribbean  Sea,  but  find  no  heavy  weather 


QUITO. 


299 


on  the  Pacific,  where  the  wind  is  “  never  strong  enough  to 
ruffle  the  fur  on  a  cat’s  back,”  as  the  sailors  say,  and  ships 
sail  in  a  perpetual  calm.  The  trip  to  Chili,  however,  is  long 
and  tiresome,  lasting  twenty -five  days.  Less  than  half  the 
time  is  spent  at  sea,  as  there  are  thirty-eight  ports  at  which 
the  vessels,  under  the  company’s  contracts,  are  obliged  to  call. 
Guayaquil,  the  commercial  metropolis  of  Ecuador,  and  next 


ALONG  THE  COAST. 


to  Callao,  Peru,  and  Valparaiso,  Chili,  the  most  important 
place  on  the  coast,  is  the  first  stopping-place,  four  days  from 
Panama.  Although  the  westernmost  city  of  South  America, 
Guayaquil  has  about  the  same  longitude  as  Washington,  and 
is  only  two  degrees  south  of  the  equator.  It  is  sixty  miles 
from  the  sea,  on  a  river  which  looks  like  the  Mississippi  at 


300 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


New  Orleans,  and  stretches  along  the  low  hanks  for  more 
than  two  miles. 

One’s  first  impression,  if  he  arrives  at  night,  is  that  the 
ship  has  anchored  in  front  of  a  South  American  Paris,  so 
brilliant  are  the  terraces  of  gas- lamps,  rising  one  after  the 
other,  as  the  town  slopes  up  towards  the  mountains.  "When 
morning  dawns  the  deception  is  renewed,  and  one  has  a  pict¬ 
ure  of  Venice  before  him,  with  long  lines  of  white  buildings, 
whose  curtained  balconies  look  down  upon  gayly  clad  men 
and  women  floating  upon  the  river  in  quaint-looking,  narrow 
gondolas  and  broad-bosomed  rafts.  Unless  he  is  warned  in 
time,  the  traveller  meets  with  a  sudden  and  disgusting  sur¬ 
prise  upon  disembarking,  for  the  gondolas  are  nothing  but 
“dug-outs”  bringing  pineapples  and  bananas  from  up  the 
river;  the  rafts  are  balsam -logs  lashed  together  with  vines, 
and  the  houses  are  dilapidated  skeletons  of  bamboo,  white¬ 
washed,  which  look  as  if  they  had  been  erected  by  an  archi¬ 
tectural  lunatic,  and  would  tumble  into  the  river  with  the 
first  gust  of  wind.  The  streets  are  dirty  and  have  a  repulsive 
smell,  and  the  half -naked  Indians  which  throng  them  are 
continually  scratching  their  bodies  for  fleas  and  their  heads 
for  lice.  Half  the  tilth  that  festers  under  the  tropic  sun  in 
Guayaquil  would  breed  a  sudden  pestilence  in  New  1  ork  or 
Chicago,  yet  the  inhabitants  say  it  is  a  healthy  city,  where 
yellow-fever  or  cholera  never  comes. 

A  narrow-gauge  street  railway,  or  tramvia,  as  they  call  it, 
reaches  from  the  docks  a  couple  of  miles  to  the  edge  of  the 
city,  and  upon  its  cars  the  products  of  the  plantations  are 
brought  to  the  docks  and  loaded  by  lighters  upon  outgoing 
vessels.  Like  all  Spanish  ports,  this  one  has  no  wharfage, 
but  ships  of  whatever  tonnage  have  to  anchor  in  the  river  a 
mile  or  so  from  shore,  and  release  or  receive  freight  upon 
barges,  which  ai’e  towed,  not  bv  tugs,  for  there  is  not  such  a 
thing  in  all  that  region,  but  bv  oarsmen  in  a  row-boat.  Pas- 
sengers  have  to  reach  the  steamers  in  a  similar  way. 

When  we  arrived  there  we  were  immediately  surrounded 
by  a  crowd  of  boatmen,  who  clambered  up  the  sides  of  the 


QUITO. 


301 


vessel,  screaming  with  all  the  strength  of  their  lungs  the 
merits  of  their  boats.  Their  vociferousness  and  persistency 
would  make  the  Niagara  Falls  hackmen  green  with  jealousy ; 
and  the  fact  that  most  of  them  were  bare  up  to  their  thighs, 
and  entirely  shirtless,  made  the  scene  picturesque,  although 


THE  RIVER  AT  GUAYAQUIL. 


somewhat  alarming  to  a  timid  person.  The  costume  of  the 
Ecuador  boatmen  is  equivalent  to  a  pair  of  cotton  bathing  - 
trunks,  and  they  are  as  much  at  home  in  the  water  as  in 
their  canoes. 

With  twenty -five  or  thirty  of  these  naked  black  men  sur¬ 
rounding  him,  shoving  and  pushing  one  another,  screaming, 
gesticulating,  and  performing  a  war-dance  of  the  most  ex¬ 
traordinary  description,  a  timid  man  is  apt  to  be  deceived  by 
appearances,  and  imagine  that  he  has  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  a  tribe  of  hungry  cannibals,  instead  of  a  party  of  innocent 
Sambos  who  wish  to  promote  his  welfare.  As  soon  as  these 
maniacs  discovered  we  were  Americans,  they  were  smart 
enough  to  introduce  into  the  bedlam  as  much  of  our  mother- 


302 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tongue  as  they  could  command,  making  the  scene  all  the  more 
amusing.  One  big  fellow,  black  as  midnight,  with  only  about 
half  a  yard  of  muslin  and  a  dilapidated  panama  hat  to  pro¬ 
tect  his  person  from  the  elements,  jumped  up  and  down,  yell¬ 
ing  at  the  top  of  his  lungs,  “  Me  Americano  !  me  Americano  ! 
Me  been  to  Baltimoore  !”  Becoming  interested  in  the  fellow, 
we  learned  that  he  had  been  a  sailor  on  a  Spanish  man-of- 
war  which  several  years  ago  visited  that  city. 

Among  the  crowd  of  howling  dervises  was  a  pleasant- 
looking  fellow  with  a  whole  pair  of  pantaloons  and  a  linen 
duster  on.  lie  was  not  so  noisy  as  the  rest,  and  could  speak 
a  little  English.  Taking  him  aside,  I  told  him  how  large  our 
party  was,  and  where  we  wanted  to  go.  lie  agreed  to  take 
us  and  our  luggage  ashore  for  two  dollars,  and  was  at  once 
engaged ;  whereupon,  instead  of  going  off  and  minding  their 
own  business,  the  crowd  began  to  abuse  Pepe — for  that,  he 
said,  was  his  name — and  the  rest  of  us  in  the  most  violent 
manner;  and  when  the  baggage  was  brought  up  they  seized 
upon  it,  and  each  man  attempted  to  carry  a  piece  into  his 
own  boat.  But  the  mate  of  the  steamer  was  equal  to  the 
occasion,  and  laid  about  him  with  so  much  energ3r  that  the 
deck  was  soon  cleared. 

The  street  railway  only  extends  to  the  limits  of  the  city, 
but  a  short  walk  beyond  it  gives  one  a  glimpse  of  the  rural 
tropics.  At  one  end  of  the  main  street,  which  runs  along 
the  river  front,  is  a  fortress-crowned  hill,  from  the  summit  of 
which  a  charming  view  of  the  surrounding  country  can  be 
obtained,  but  the  better  plan  is  to  take  a  carriage  and  drive 
out  a  few  miles.  The  road  is  rough  and  dusty,  but  passes 
among  cocoa-nut  gi’oves  and  sugar  plantations,  through  for¬ 
ests  fairly  blazing  with  the  wondrous  passion-flower,  so  scai’- 
let  as  to  make  the  trees  look  like  living  fire ;  with  pineapple- 
plants  and  banana-trees  bending  under  the  enormous  loads  of 
fruit  the}'  carry.  The  rickety  old  carriage  passed  along  until 
our  senses  were  almost  bewildered  by  visions  none  of  us  had 
ever  seen.  ISA  where  can  one  find  a  more  beautiful  scene  of 
tropical  vegetation  in  its  full  glory,  and  no  artist  ever  mingled 


QUITO. 


303 


THE  RIVER  ABOVE  GUAYAQUIL. 

There  is  considerable  business  done  in  Guayaquil,  and  some 
of  the  merchants  carry  stocks  of  imported  goods  valued  at 
half  a  million  dollars,  with  an  annual  trade  of  double  that 
amount.  It  is  the  only  town  in  Ecuador  worth  speaking  of 


colors  that  could  convey  an  adequate  idea  of  nature’s  gor¬ 
geousness  here. 

The  most  beautiful  thing  in  the  tropics  is  a  young  palm- 
tree.  The  old  ones  are  more  graceful  than  any  of  our  foliage 
plants,  but  they  all  show  signs  of  decay.  The  young  ones, 
so  supple  as  to  bend  before  the  winds,  are  the  ideal  of  grace 
and  loveliness,  as  picturesque  in  repose  as  they  are  in  motion. 
The  long,  spreading  leaves,  of  a  vivid  green,  bend  and  sway 
with  the  breeze,  and  nod  in  the  sunlight  with  a  beauty  which 
cannot  be  described. 


304 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


in  a  commercial  point  of  view,  and  its  tradesmen  do  the 
entire  wholesale  business  of  that  republic.  The  shipments  of 
cocoa,  rubber,  hides,  coffee,  ivory,  nuts,  and  cinchona  (quinine) 
bark  amount  to  about  §6,000,000  a  year,  and  the  imports,  the 
President  of  Ecuador  told  us,  amount  annually  to  §10,000,000. 

There  is  no  way  to  as¬ 
certain  the  truth  of  his 
Excellency’s  statements, 
as  the  Government  keeps 
no  statistics  of  its  com¬ 
merce,  and  he  admitted 
that  it  was  only  an  es¬ 
timate  based  upon  the 
amount  of  duties  collect¬ 
ed  ;  but  one  may  be  al¬ 
lowed  to  doubt  that  a 
country  like  Ecuador, 
the  most  backward,  ig¬ 
norant,  and  impoverish¬ 
ed  in  all  America,  can 
purchase  for  many  years 
in  succession  twice  as 
much  as  it  sells. 

Founded  in  1535  by 
one  of  the  lieutenants 
of  Pizarro,  Guayaquil 
has  been  the  market  for  five  hundred  miles  of  coast  ever 
since,  but  now  it  is  almost  destitute  of  native  capital,  nearly 
all  the  merchants  being  foreigners,  mostly  English  and  Ger¬ 
man.  with  one  or  two  from  the  United  States.  It  is  the  only 
place  in  Ecuador  in  which  modern  civilization  exists ;  the  rest 
of  the  country  is  a  century  behind  the  times.  Since  its  foun¬ 
dation  Guayaquil  has  been  burned  several  times,  and  often 
plundered  by  pirates:  now  its  commercial  condition  seems 
secure  from  all  dangers  except  revolutions,  which  are  epidemic 
in  Ecuador.  In  fact,  the  country  would  feel  queer  without 
one.  Earthquakes  are  frequent,  but  the  elastic  bamboo  houses 


AN  AVERAGE  DWELLING. 


QUITO. 


305 


only  shiver — they  never  fall.  To  the  torch  of  the  revolution¬ 
ist,  however,  they  are  like  tinder,  and  the  blocks  that  have 
been  burned  over  testify  to  its  effectiveness  as  a  weapon  of 
destruction. 

Over  the  entrances  to  the  houses  are  tin  signs,  each  of  which 
represents  the  flag  of  the  country  of  which  the  dweller  within 
is  a  citizen  ;  and  upon  these  signs  are  painted  warnings  to  rev- 


GUAYAQUIL. 


olutionary  looters  or  incendiaries — “  This  is  the  property  of  a 
citizen  of  Great  Britain or,  “  This  is  the  property  of  a  citizen 
of  Germany or,  “  This  is  the  property  of  a  citizen  of  the 
United  States  ” — and  the  robber  and  torch-bearer  are  expected 
to  respect  them  as  such,  but  seldom  do. 

Bolivar  freed  Ecuador  from  the  Spanish  yoke,  as  he  did 
20 


306 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Colombia,  Venezuela,  Bolivia,  ancl  Peru,  and  it  was  one  of 
the  five  States  which  formed  the  United  States  of  Colombia 

under  his  presidency ;  but  the  priests 
had  such  a  hold  upon  the  people  that 
liberty  could  not  live  in  an  atmos¬ 
phere  the}7  polluted,  and  the  country 
lapsed  into  a  state  of  anarchy  which 
has  continued  ever  since.  The  strug¬ 
gle  has  been  between  the  progressive 
element  and  the  priests,  and  the  lat¬ 
ter  have  usually  triumphed.  It  is  the 
only  country  in  America  in  which  the 
Romish  Church  survives  as  the  Span¬ 
iards  left  it.  In  other  countries  pop¬ 
ish  influence  has  been  destroyed,  and 
the  rule  which  prevails  everywhere — 
that  the  less  a  people  are  under  the  control  of  that  Church 
the  greater  their  prosperity,  enlightenment,  and  progress— is 
illustrated  in  Ecuador  with  striking  force. 


A  PERSON  OF  INFLUENCE. 


One-fourth  of  all  the  property  in  Ecuador  belongs  to  the 
bishop.  There  is  a  Catholic  church  for  every  one  hundred 
and  fifty  inhabitants :  of  the  population  of  the  country  ten 
per  cent,  are  priests,  monks,  or  nuns ;  and  two  hundred  and 
seventy-two  of  the  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  days  of  the 
year  are  observed  as  feast  or  fast  days. 

The  priests  control  the  Government  in  all  its  branches, 
dictate  its  laws  and  govern  their  enforcement,  and  rule  the 
country  as  absolutely  as  if  the  Pope  were  its  king.  As  a 
result  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  the  children  born  are  illegiti¬ 
mate.  There  is  not  a  penitentiary,  house  of  correction,  reform¬ 
atory,  or  benevolent  institution  outside  of  Quito  and  Guay¬ 
aquil;  there  is  not  a  railroad  or  stage-coach  in  the  entire 
country,  and  until  recently  there  was  not  a  telegraph  wire. 
Laborers  get  from  two  to  ten  dollars  a  month,  and  men  are 
paid  two  dollars  and  a  quarter  for  carrying  one  hundred 
pounds  of  merchandise  on  their  backs  two  hundred  and 
eighty-five  miles.  There  is  not  a  wagon  in  the  republic  out- 


QUITO. 


307 


side  of  Guayaquil,  and  not  a  road  over  which  a  wagon  could 
pass.  The  people  know  nothing  but  what  the  priests  tell 
them ;  they  have  no  amusements  but  cock-fights  and  bull¬ 
fights  ;  no  literature ;  no  mail-routes,  except  from  Guayaquil 
to  the  capital  (Quito),  and  nothing  is  common  among  the 
masses  that  was  not  in  use  by  them  two  hundred  years  ago. 
If  one-tenth  of  the  money  that  has  been  expended  in  build¬ 
ing  monasteries  had  been  devoted  to  the  construction  of  cart- 
roads,  Ecuador,  which  is  naturally  rich,  would  be  one  of  the 
most  wealthy  nations,  in  proportion  to  its  area,  on  the  globe. 

There  once  was  a  steam  railroad  in  Ecuador.  During  the 
time  when  Henry  Meiggs  was  creating  such  an  excitement 
by  the  improvements  he  was  making  in  the  transportation 


A  FAMILY  circle. 


facilities  of  Peru,  the  contagion  spread  to  Ecuador,  and  some 
ambitious  English  capitalists  attempted  to  lay  a  road  from 
Guayaquil  to  the  interior.  A  track  seventeen  miles  long  was 
built,  which  represents  the  railway  system  of  Ecuador  in  all 


308 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  geographies,  gazetteers,  and  books  of  statistics ;  but  no 
wheels  ever  passed  over  this  track,  and  the  tropical  vegeta¬ 
tion  has  grown  so  luxuriantly  about  the  place  where  it  lies 
that  it  would  now  be  difficult  to  find  it.  Last  year  a  tele- 


CATIIEDUAL  at  GUAYAQUIL,  BUILT  OF  BAMBOO. 


graph  line  was  built  connecting  Guayaquil  with  Quito,  the 
highest  city  in  the  world  ;  hut  there  is  only  one  wire,  and  this 
is  practically  useless,  as  not  more  than  seven  days  out  of  the 
month  can  a  message  be  sent  over  it.  The  people  chop  down 
the  poles  for  firewood,  and  cut  out  pieces  of  the  wire  to 
repair  broken  harness  whenever  they  feel  so  disposed.  Then 
it  often  takes  a  week  for  the  line-man  to  find  the  break,  and 
another  week  to  repair  it.  In  the  Government  telegraph 
office  I  saw  an  operator  with  a  ball  and  chain  attached  to 
his  leg — a  convict  who  had  been  sent  back  to  his  post  because 
no  one  else  could  be  found  to  work  the  instrument.  A  young 
lady  took  the  message  and  the  money.  There  is  a  cable 
belonging  to  a  New  York  company  connecting  Guayaquil 
with  the  outside  world,  but  rates  are  extremely  high,  the 
tariff  to  the  United  States  being  three  dollars  a  word,  and  to 
other  places  in  proportion. 


QUITO. 


309 


Although  almost  directly  under  the  equator,  the  tempera- 
ature  of  Guayaquil  seldom  rises  above  ninety,  and  after  two 
o’clock  in  the  day  it  is  always  as  cool  as  a  pleasant  sum¬ 
mer  morning  in  New  England.  A  fresh  breeze  called  the 
chandny  blows  over  the  ice -capped  mountains,  and  brings 
health  to  a  city  which  would  otherwise  be  uninhabitable. 
On  clear  afternoons  Mount  Chimborazo,  or  “  Chimbo  ”  as 
they  call  it  for  short,  until  recently  supposed  to  be  the  high¬ 
est  in  the  hemisphere,  can  be  seen — white,  jagged,  and  silently 
impressive — against  the  clear  sky. 


A  COMMERCIAL  THOROUGHFARE. 

The  road  to  Quito  is  a  mountain-path  around  the  base  of 
Chimbo,  traversed  only  on  foot  or  mule-back,  and  then  only 
during  six  months  of  the  year ;  for  in  the  rainy  season  it  is 
impassable,  except  to  experienced  mountaineers. 

During  the  rainy  seasons  the  recent  President,  Don  Jesus 


THE  PRESIDENT  S  PALACE. 


Maria  Caamano,  resided  in  Guayaquil,  in  a  barracks  guarded 
by  soldiers  where  be  could  watch  the  collection  of  customs  and 
see  to  the  suppression  of  revolutions.  He  was  the  representa¬ 
tive  of  the  Church  party,  and  the  people  of  the  interior  were 
lovul  to  him;  but  the  liberal  element,  which  mostly  exists  o 
,1m  coast  where  a  knowledge  of  the  world  has  come,  was  in  a 
perpetual  state  of  revolt,  and  required  constant  attention, 
fortress  overlooking  the  town  of  Guayaquil,  and  a  gun-boat 


QUITO. 


311 


the  harbor,  keep  the  people  in  subjection.  We  called  upon 
the  President  at  his  headquarters,  and  found  him  swinging 
in  a  hammock  and  smoking  a  cigarette.  He  is  a  man  of 
slight  frame,  with  noticeably  small  hands  and  feet,  which  he 
appeared  quite  anxious  should  not  escape  our  observation. 
He  has  a  pleasant  and  intelligent  face,  but  seemed  to  be 
bewildered  when  we  drew  him  into  conversation  about  the 


THE  OUTSKIRTS  OF  GUAYAQUIL. 

commerce  of  his  country.  He  was  educated  in  Europe,  and 
has  the  reputation  of  being  a  man  of  culture,  although  the 
abject  tool  of  the  priests. 

Notwithstanding  the  rest  of  the  country  is  still  in  the  mid¬ 
dle  ages,  Guayaquil  shows  symptoms  of  becoming  a  modern 
town.  It  has  gas,  street -cars,  ice -factories,  and  other  im¬ 
provements,  all  introduced  by  citizens  of  the  United  States. 


31*2 


the  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  custom-house  is  built  of  pine  from  Maine  and  corrugated 
iron  from  Pennsylvania,  and  a  citizen  of  New  York  erected  it. 
An  American  company  has  a  line  of  paddle-w  heel  steamers. 


A  BUSINESS  OF  IMPORTANCE. 


constructed  in  Baltimore,  on  the  river,  and  the  only  gun-boat 
the  Government  owns  is  a  discarded  merchant -ship  which 
plied  between  New  \  ork  and  Norfolk.  Some  of  the  houses, 
although  built  of  split  bamboo  and  plaster,  are  very  elegantly 
furnished,  and  the  stores  show  fine  stocks  of  goods.  But  the 
rear  portion  of  the  city  is  so  filthy  that  one  has  to  hold  his 
nose  as  he  passes  through  it.  The  people  five  in  miserable 
dirt  hovels,  and  the  buzzard  is  the  only  industrious  biped  to 
be  seen. 

There  is  no  fresh  water  in  town,  but  all  that  the  people 
use  is  brought  on  rafts  from  twenty  miles  up  the  river,  and 
is  peddled  about  the  place  in  casks  carried  upon  the  backs  of 


QUITO. 


313 


donkeys  or  men.  It  looks  very  funny  to  see  the  donkeys  all 
wearing  pantalettes — not,  however,  from  motives  of  modesty, 
as  the  native  children  go  entirely  naked,  and  the  men  and 
women  nearly  so,  but  to  protect  their  legs  and  bellies  from 
the  gadfly,  which  bites  fiercely  here.  Bread  as  well  as  water 
is  peddled  about  the  town  in  the  same  way,  and  vegetables 
are  brought  down  the  river  on  rafts  and  in  dug-outs,  which 
are  hauled  upon  the  beach  in  long  rows,  and  present  a  busy 
and  interesting  scene.  Guayaquil  is  famous  for  the  finest 
pineapples  in  the  world — great  juicy  fruits,  as  white  as  snow 
and  as  sweet  as  honey.  It  is  also  famous  for  its  hats  and 
hammocks  made  of  the  pita  fibre  from  a  sort  of  cactus.  The 
well-known  Panama  hats  are  all  made  in  Guayaquil  and  the 
towns  along  that  coast,  but  get  their  name  because  Panama 
merchants  formerly  controlled  the  trade. 

One  afternoon,  at  Guayaquil,  I  witnessed  a  singular  cere¬ 
mony,  which  is,  however,  very  common  there.  One  of  the 
churches  had  been  destroyed  by  an  earthquake,  and  funds 


A  PINEAPPLE  FARM. 


314 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


were  needed  to  repair  it.  So  the  priest  took  the  image  ot 
|the  Virgin  from  the  altar,  and  the  holy  sacrament,  and  car¬ 
ried  them  about  the  city  under  a  canopy,  clad  m  his  sacerdotal 
vestments.  He  was  preceded  by  a  brass  band,  a  number  of 


A  WATER  MERCHANT. 


boys  carrying  lighted  candles  and  swinging  incense  urns,  and 
followed  by  a  long  procession  of  men,  women,  and  children. 
The  assemblage  passed  up  and  down  the  principal  street, 
stopping  in  front  of  each  house.  While  the  band  played, 
priests  with  contribution  plates  entered  the  houses,  soliciting 
subscriptions,  and  the  people  in  the  procession  kneeled  in  the 
dust  and  prayed  that  the  same  might  be  given  with ^  liberality. 
Where  money  was  obtained  a  blessing  was  bestowed ;  where 
none  was  offered  a  curse  was  pronounced,  with  a  notice  that 
a  contribution  was  expected  at  once,  or  the  curse  would  be 

daily  repeated.  _  A 

All  imported  goods  are  first  brought  to  Guayaquil,  and 

from  that  point  distributed.  Those  destined  for  Quito  aie 
conveyed  by  steamboat  up  the  rivers  for  a  distance  of  sixty 
miles '  From  the  termination  of  the  steamboat  route  the  dis¬ 
tance  to  Quito  is  two  hundred  and  sixty  miles,  making  the 


QUITO. 


315 


total  distance  from  Guayaquil  three  hundred  and  twenty 
miles.  Between  the  upper  end  of  the  steamboat  route  and 
Quito  all  packages  of  merchandise  that  do  not  weigh  more 
than  two  hundred  pounds  are  conveyed  on  the  backs  of 
horses,  mules,  or  donkeys.  The  average  cost  in  United  States 
currency — in  which  all  values  are  stated — is  four  dollars  per 
one  hundred  pounds  between  Guayaquil  and  Quito.  Pianos, 
organs,  safes,  carriage  -  bodies,  large  mirrors,  and  some  other 
articles  too  heavy  or  too  bulky  to  be  carried  on  a  single  horse 
are  placed  on  a  frame  of  bamboo  poles  and  carried  on  the 
shoulders  of  men  the  entire  land  portion  of  the  journey.  A 
piano  weighing  about  six  hundred  pounds  can  be  carried  by 
twenty -four  men  in  two  divisions,  one  half  serving  as  a  relay 
to  the  other  half.  Although  labor  is  very  low-priced,  the 
man-carriage  is  quite  expensive.  A  cart-road,  or  railroad,  both 
of  which  are  feasible  and  practicable,  would  greatly  reduce 
the  expense  of  transpor¬ 
tation,  and  would  mate¬ 
rially  influence  domestic 
manufactures,  as  well  as 
the  introduction  of  for¬ 
eign  manufactured  prod¬ 
ucts.  It  seems  almost  im¬ 
possible  that  any  Ameri¬ 
can  goods  could,  after 
undergoing  such  a  tre¬ 
mendous  carriage,  com¬ 
pete  with  native  manu¬ 
factures,  however  crude, 
in  Quito,  and  yet  they 

do.  ISTearly  all  the  furniture  in  use  in  that  city  is  brought 
from  the  United  States  in  separate  parts  and  put  together  on 
arrival ;  and  in  that,  the  highest  and  oldest  city  in  America, 
many  people  sleep  on  Grand  Rapids  beds.  The  twelve  brew¬ 
eries  running  in  Quito  import  their  hops  from  the  United 
States  and  Europe,  and  with  railroad  facilities  American  beer, 
as  well  as  hops,  could  be  liberally  sold  in  Quito.  American 


A  FREIGHT  TRAIN  ON  THE  WAY. 


316 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


refined  sugars  are  largely  consumed,  although  the  native 
products  are  very  good. 

Ecuador,  with  about  one  million  inhabitants,  has  only  forty- 
seven  post-offices,  but  they  are  so  widely  distributed  that  it 
requires  a  mail  carriage  of  5389  miles  to  reach  them  all; 
seventy-two  miles  by  canoes  and  5317  by  horses  and  mules. 


A  PASSENGER  TRAIN. 


About  five  hundred  miles  of  the  seaboard  service  is  also  cov¬ 
ered  by  foreign  steamship  mail  service.  Between  Quito, and 
Guayaquil  there  are  two  mails  each  way  per  week  by  cou¬ 
riers — the  usual  time  one  way,  travelling  day  and  night,  being 
six  days.  Other  sections  of  the  country  are  less  favored  by 
mail  service,  the  receipt  and  departure  of  mails  ranging  from 
once  a  week  to  once  a  month,  as  people  happen  to  be  going. 


QUITO. 


317 


During  the  year  1885  there  were  carried  within  the  coun¬ 
try  2,989,885  letters,  and  50,700  letters  were  sent  to  foreign 
countries,  eighty  per  cent,  of  them  being  between  Guayaquil 
and  the  neighboring  towns.  No  interior  postage  is  charged 
on  newspapers,  whether  of  domestic  or  foreign  publication. 
Interior  letter  postage  is  five  cents  each  one-fourth  ounce. 
The  postage  on  letters  to  foreign  countries  is  twelve  cents 
each  half  ounce  and  one  cent  per  ounce  on  newspapers. 

The  social  and  political  condition  of  Ecuador  presents  a 
picture  of  the  dark  ages.  There  is  not  a  newspaper  printed 
outside  of  the  city  of  Guayaquil,  and  the  only  information 
the  people  have  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  world  is  gained 
from  the  strangers  who  now  and  then  visit  the  country,  and 
from  a  class  of  peddlers  who  make  periodical  trips,  traversing 
the  whole  hemisphere  from  Guatemala  to  Patagonia.  These 
peddlers  are  curious  fellows,  and  there  seems  to  be  a  regular 


THE  COMMON  CARRIER. 


organization  of  them.  They  are  like  the  old  minstrels  that 
we  read  of  in  the  novels  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  They  practise 
medicine,  sing  songs,  cure  diseased  cattle,  mend  clocks,  carry 
letters  and  messages  from  place  to  place,  and  peddle  such  lit¬ 
tle  articles  as  are  used  in  the  households  of  the  natives.  It 


318 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


HOTEL  ON  THE  ROUTE  TO  QUITO. 


often  takes  them  three  or  four  veal’s  to  make  a  round  trip, 
going  invariably  on  foot,  and  carrying  packs  upon  their  backs. 
When  their  stock  is  exhausted  they  replenish  it  at  the  near¬ 
est  source  of  supply,  and  are  ever  welcome  visitors  at  the 
homes  of  the  natives.  This  internal  trade  does  not  amount 
to  much  in  dollars  and  cents,  but  supplies  the  lack  of  retail 
establishments  and  newspapers. 

The  capital  and  the  productive  regions  of  Ecuador  are 
accessible  only  by  a  mule -path,  which  is  impassable  for  six 
months  in  the  year  during  the  rainy  season,  and  in  the  dry 
season  it  requires  eight  or  nine  days  to  traverse  it,  with  no 
resting-places  where  a  man  can  find  a  decent  bed,  or  food  fit 
for  human  consumption.  This  is  the  only  means  of  commu¬ 
nication  between  Quito  and  the  outside  world,  except  along 
the  mountains  southward  into  Bolivia  and  Peru,  where  the 
Incas  constructed  beautiful  highways  which  the  Spaniards 
have  permitted  to  decay  until  they  are  now  practically  use¬ 
less.  They  were  so  well  built,  however,  as  to  stand  the 
wear  and  tear  of  three  centuries,  and  the  slightest  attempt 
at  repair  would  have  kept  them  in  order. 

Although  the  journey  from  Guayaquil  to  Quito  takes  nine 
days,  Garcia  Moreno,  a  former  President  of  Ecuador,  once 


QUITO. 


319 


made  it  in  thirty-six  hours.  He  heard  of  a  revolution,  and 
springing  upon  his  horse  went  to  the  capital,  had  twenty-two 
conspirators  shot,  and  was  back  at  Guayaquil  in  less  than  a 
week.  Moreno  was  President  for  twelve  years,  and  was  one 
of  the  fiercest  and  most  cruel  rulers  South  America  has  ever 
seen.  He  shot  men  who  would  not  take  off  their  hats  to 
him  in  the  streets,  and 
had  a  drunken  priest  im¬ 
paled  in  the  principal 
plaza  of  Quito,  as  a  warn¬ 
ing  to  the  clergy  to  ob¬ 
serve  habits  of  sobriety 
or  conceal  their  intemper¬ 
ance.  There  was  noth¬ 
ing  too  brutal  for  this 
man  to  do,  and  nothing 
too  sacred  to  escape  his 
grasp.  Yet  he  compelled 
Congress  to  pass  an  act 
declaring  that  the  repub¬ 
lic  of  Ecuador  “existed 
wholly  and  alone  devot¬ 
ed  to  the  services  of  the 
Holy  Church,”  and  for¬ 
bidding  the  importation 
of  books  and  periodicals 
which  did  not  receive  the 
sanction  of  the  Jesuits.  waiting  for  the  mules  to  feed. 
He  divided  his  army  into 

four  divisions,  called  respectively  “  The  Division  of  the  Bless¬ 
ed  Virgin,”  “  The  Division  of  the  Son  of  God,”  “  The  Divis¬ 
ion  of  the  Holy  Ghost,”  and  “  The  Division  of  the  Body  and 
Blood  of  Christ.”  He  made  the  “Sacred  Heart  of  Jesus” 
the  national  emblem,  and  called  his  body-guard  the  “  Holy 
Lancers  of  Santa  Maria.”  He  died  in  1875  by  assassination, 
and  the  country  has  been  in  a  state  of  political  eruption  ever 
since. 


320 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Although  the  road  to  Quito  is  over  an  almost  untrodden 
wilderness,  it  presents  the  grandest  scenic  panorama  in  the 

world.  Directly  beneath 
the  equator,  surround¬ 
ing-  the  city  whose  ori¬ 
gin  is  lost  in  the  mist 
of  centuries,  rise  twenty 
volcanoes,  presided  over 
by  the  princely  Chim¬ 
borazo,  the  lowest  being 
15,922  feet  in  height, 
and  the  highest  reach¬ 
ing  an  altitude  of  22,500 
feet.  Three  of  these  vol¬ 
canoes  are  active,  five 
are  dormant,  and  twelve 
extinct.  Nowhere  else 
on  the  earth’s  surface  is 
such  a  cluster  of  peaks, 
such  a  grand  assemblage 
of  giants.  Eighteen  of 
the  twenty  are  covered 
with  perpetual  snow,  and  the  summits  of  eleven  have  never 
been  reached  by  a  living  creature  except  the  condor,  whose 
flight  surpasses  that  of  any  other  bird.  At  noon  the  vertical 
sun  throws  a  profusion  of  light  upon  the  snow -crowned 
summits,  when  they  appear  like  a  group  of  pyramids  cut  in 
spotless  marble. 

Cotopaxi  is  the  loftiest  of  active  volcanoes,  but  it  is  slum¬ 
bering  now.  The  only  evidence  of  action  is  the  frequent 
rumblings,  which  can  be  heard  for  a  hundred  miles,  and  the 
cloud  of  smoke  by  day  and  the  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  which 
constantly  arises  from  a  crater  that  is  more  than  three  thou¬ 
sand  feet  beyond  the  reach  of  man.  Many  have  attempted 
to  scale  it,  but  the  walls  are  so  steep  and  the  snow  is  so  deep 
that  ascent  is  impossible  even  with  scaling-ladders.  On  the 
south  side  of  Cotopaxi  is  a  great  rock,  more  than  two  thou- 


SOMEWHERE  NEAR  THE  SUMMIT. 


QUITO. 


323 


sand  feet  high,  called  the  “Inca’s  Head.”  Tradition  says 
that  it  was  once  the  summit  of  the  volcano,  and  fell  on  the 
day  when  Atahaulpa  was  strangled  by  the  Spaniards.  Those 
who  have  seen  Yesuvius  can  judge  of  the  grandeur  of  Coto¬ 
paxi  if  they  can  imagine  a  volcano  fifteen  thousand  feet 
higher  shooting  forth  its  fire  from  a  crest  covered  by  three 
thousand  feet  of  snow,  with  a  voice  that  has  been  heard  six 


THE  ALTAR. 


hundred  miles.  And  one  can  judge  of  the  grandeur  of  the 
road  to  Quito  if  he  can  imagine  twenty  of  the  highest  mount¬ 
ains  in  America,  three  of  them  active  volcanoes,  standing 
along  the  road  from  Washington  to  Yew  York. 

The  city  of  Quito  lies  upon  the  breast  of  a  very  uncertain 
and  treacherous  mother,  the  volcano  Pichincha,  which  rises  to 
an  altitude  of  sixteen  thousand  feet,  or  about  four  thousand 


324 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


live  hundred  feet  above  the  plaza.  Since  the  Conquest  the 
volcano  has  had  three  notable  eruptions  — in  1575,  1587, 
and  1060,  when  the  city  was  almost  entirely  destroyed. 
In  1859  there  was  a  severe  earthquake  followed  by  an 
eruption,  which,  while  it  did  not  do  much  damage  in  the 
city  itself,  caused  great  destruction  and  loss  of  life  in  the 
surrounding  towns  and  villages.  In  1868  the  great  convul¬ 
sion  which  extended  along  the  entire  South  Pacific  coast 
was  severely  felt  in  Ecuador,  where,  it  is  stated,  seventy  - 
two  towns'  were  ’  destroyed  and  thirty  thousand  people 
killed. 

There  was  a  great  scare  in  Ecuador  in  the  summer  of  1868 
because  of  the  violent  eruption  of  the  volcano  Tunguragua, 
one  of  the  largest  in  the  group,  rising  nearly  two  thousand 


A  STREET  IX  QUITO. 


QUITO. 


325 


feet  above  the  line  of  perpetual  snow ;  but  after  a  few  days 
of  agitation,  in  which  immense  masses  of  lava  and  ashes  were 
thrown  out  of  the  crater,  the  eruption  subsided  without  doing 
much  damage. 

Here  in  these  mountains,  until  the  Spaniards  came,  in  1534, 
existed  a  civilization  that 
was  old  when  Christ  was 
crucified ;  a  civilization 
whose  arts  were  equal  to 
those  of  Egypt ;  which 
had  temples  four  times 
the  size  of  the  Capitol  at 
Washington,  from  a  single 
one  of  which  the  Span¬ 
iards  drew  twenty  -  two 
thousand  ounces  of  solid 
silver  nails;  whose  rulers 
had  palaces  from  which 
the  Spaniards  gathered 
ninety  thousand  ounces  of 
gold  and  an  unmeasured 
quantity  of  silver.  Here 
was  an  empire  stretching 
from  the  equator  to  the 
antarctic  circle,  walled  in 
by  the  grandest  groups  of 
mountains  in  the  world ; 
whose  people  knew  all  the 
arts  of  their  time  but  those  of  war,  and  were  conquered  by 
two  hundred  and  thirteen  men  under  the  leadership  of  a 
Spanish  swineherd  who  could  neither  read  nor  write. 

The  age  of  Quito  is  unknown.  The  present  city  was  built 
by  the  Spaniards  after  the  Conquest,  but  it  stands  upon  the 
foundations  of  a  city  they  destroyed,  which  was  older  than 
the  knowledge  of  men.  The  history  of  the  ancient  place 
dates  back  only  a  few  years  before  the  arrival  of  the  Span¬ 
iards  in  the  country;  for  they,  ignorant  men,  interested  in 


WHERE  PIZARRO  FIRST  LANDED. 


326 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


nothing  but  plunder,  destroyed  every  means  by  which  its  an¬ 
tiquity  could  have  been  traced. 

Ecuador  was  the  scene  of  the  first  conquest.  The  Span¬ 
iards,  under  Pizarro,  landed  first  on  the  island  of  Puna,  at 
the  mouth  of  the  harbor  of  Guayaquil,  and  first  stepped  upon 
the  main  coast  at  Tumbez,  in  Peru,  a  few  miles  southward. 
Here  they  found  that  the  Incas,  for  the  first  time  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  that  remarkable  race,  were  at  war.  Iluayna-Capac, 
the  greatest  of  the  Incas,  made  Quito  his  capital,  and  there 
lived  in  a  splendor  unsurpassed  in  ancient  or  modern  times. 
At  his  death  he  divided  his  kingdom  into  two  parts,  giv¬ 
ing  Atahualpa  the  northern  half,  and  ITuscar  what  is  now 
Bolivia  and  the  southern  part  of  Peru.  The  two  brothel’s 
went  to  war,  and  while  they  were  engaged  in  it  Pizarro 
came.  Everybody  who  has  read  Prescott’s  fascinating  vol¬ 
umes  knows  what  followed.  With  the  aid  of  the  Spaniards 
Atahualpa  conquered  his  brother,  and  then  the  Spaniards 
conquered  him.  When  he  lay  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  the 
guests  he  had  treated  so  hospitably,  he  offered  to  fill  his 
prison  with  gold  if  they  would  release  him.  They  agreed, 
and  his  willing  subjects  brought  the  treasure  ;  but  the  greedy 
Spaniards,  always  treacherous,  demanded  more,  and  Atahual¬ 
pa  sent  for  it.  Runners  were  hurried  all  over  the  country, 
and  the  simple,  unselfish  people  surrendered  all  their  wealth 
to  save  their  king.  But  Pizarro  became  tired  of  waiting  for 
the  treasure  to  come,  and  the  men  in  charge  of  it,  being  met 
by  the  news  that  Atahualpa  had  been  strangled,  buried  the 
gold  and  silver  in  the  Llanganati,  where  the  Spaniards  have 
been  searching  for  it  ever  since. 

No  amount  of  persuasion,  temptation,  or  torture  could 
wring  from  the  Indians  the  secret  of  the  buried  gold.  Two 
men  of  modern  times  are  supposed  to  have  known  its  hiding- 
place.  One  of  them,  an  Indian,  became  mysteriously  rich,  and 
built  the  Church  of  San  Francisco,  in  Quito.  On  his  death¬ 
bed  he  is  said  to  have  revealed  to  the  priest  who  confessed 
him  that  his  wealth  came  from  the  hidden  Inca  treasure,  but 
he  died  without  imparting  the  knowledge  of  its  location. 


QUITO. 


327 


Another  man,  Y alverde  by  name,  a  Spaniard,  married  an 
Inca  woman,  and  is  supposed  to  have  learned  the  secret  from 
her,  for  he  sprang  from  abject  poverty  to  the  summit  of 
wealth  almost  in  a  single  night,  “without  visible  means  of 
support.”  Yal verde,  when  he  died,  left  as  a  legacy  to  the 
King  of  Spain  a  guide  to  the  buried  treasure.  Hundreds  of 
fortunes  have  been  wasted,  and  hundreds  of  lives  have'  been 


EQUIPPED  FOR  THE  ANDES. 

lost,  in  vain  attempts  to  follow  Y alverde’s  directions.  They 
are  perfectly  plain  to  a  certain  point,  where  the  trail  ends, 
and  cannot  be  followed  farther  because  of  a  deep  ravine, 
which  the  credulous  assert  has  been  opened  by  an  earthquake 
since  Yal  verde  died.  These  searches  have  been  prosecuted 
by  the  Government  as  well  as  by  private  individuals  ;  and  if 
all  the  money  that  has  been  spent  in  the  search  for  Atahual- 


328 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


pa’s  ransom  had  been  expended  on  roads  and  other  internal 
improvements,  the  country  would  be  much  richer,  and  the 
people  much  more  prosperous  than  they  are. 

The  devotion  of  the  Indians  to  the  memory  of  their  king, 
who  was  strangled  three  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago,  is  very 
touching.  When  “  the  last  of  the  Incas  ”  fell,  he  left  his  peo¬ 
ple  in  perpetual  mourning,  and  the  women  wear  nothing  but 
black  to-day.  It  is  a  pathetic  custom  of  the  race  not  to  show 
upon  their  costumes  the  slightest  hint  of  color.  Over  a 
short  black  skirt  they  wear  a  sort  of  mantle,  which  resembles 
in  its  appearance,  as  well  as  in  its  use,  the  manta  that  is 
worn  by  the  ladies  of  Peru,  and  the  mantilla  of  Spain.  It  is 
drawn  over  their  foreheads  and  across  their  chins,  and  pinned 
between  the  shoulders.  This  sombre  costume  gives  them  a 
nuiY-like  appearance,  which  is  heightened  by  the  stealthy, 
silent  way  in  which  they  dart  through  the  streets.  The  cloth 
is  woven  on  their  own  native  looms,  of  the  wool  of  the  llama 
and  the  vicuna,  and  is  a  soft,  fine  fabric. 

While  the  Indians  are  under  the  despotic  rule  of  the 
priests,  and  have  accepted  the  Catholic  religion,  three  hun¬ 
dred  and  fifty  years  of  submission  have  not  entirely  divorced 
them  from  the  ancient  rites  they  practised  under  their  origi¬ 
nal  civilization.  Several  times  a  year  they  have  feasts  or 
celebrations  to  commemorate  some  event  in  the  Inca  history. 
They  never  laugh,  and  scarcely  ever  smile ;  they  have  no 
songs  and  no  amusements ;  their  only  semblance  to  music  is 
a  mournful  chant  which  they  give  in  unison  at  the  feasts 
which  are  intended  to  keep  alive  the  memories  of  the  Incas. 
They  cling  to  the  traditions  and  the  customs  of  their  ances¬ 
tors.  They  remember  the  ancient  glory  of  their  race,  and 
look  to  its  restoration  as  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico  look  for  the 
coming  of  Montezuma.  They  have'  relics  which  they  guard 
with  the  most  sacred  care,  and  two  great  secrets  which  no 
tortures  at  the  hands  of  the  Spaniards  have  been  able  to  wring 
from  them.  These  are  the  art  of  tempering  copper  so  as  to 
give  it  as  keen  and  enduring  an  edge  as  steel,  and  the  burial- 
place  of  the  Incarial  treasures. 


QUITO. 


329 


The  Spaniards  are  the  aristocracy,  poor  but  proud — very 
proud.  The  mixed  race  furnishes  the  mechanics  and  arti¬ 
sans  ;  while  the  Indians  till  the  soil  and  do  the  drudgery.  A 
cook  gets  two  dollars  a  month  in  a  depreciated  currency,  but 
the  employer  is  expected  to  board  her  entire  family.  A  la- 


THB  OLD  INCA  TRAIL. 


borer  gets  four  or  six  dollars  a  month  and  boards  himself, 
except  when  he  is  fortunate  to  have  a  wife  out  at  service. 
The  Indians  never  marry,  because  they  cannot  afford  to  do  so. 
The  law  compels  them  to  pay  the  priest  a  fee  of  six  dollars — 
more  money  than  most  of  them  can  ever  accumulate.  When 


330 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


a  Spaniard  marries,  the  fee  is  paid  by  contributions  from  his 
relatives. 

It  is  a  peculiarity  of  the  Indian  that  he  will  sell  nothing  at 
wholesale,  nor  will  he  trade  anywhere  but  in  the  market¬ 
place,  on  the  spot  where  he  and  his  forefathers  have  sold  gar¬ 
den-truck  for  three  centuries.  Although  travellers  on  the 
highways  meet  whole  armies  of  Indians  bearing  upon  their 
backs  heavy  burdens  of  vegetables  and  other  supplies,  they 
can  purchase  nothing  from  them,  as  the  native  will  not  sell  his 
goods  until  he  gets  to  the  place  where  he  is  in  the  habit  of 
selling  them.  He  will  carry  them  ten  miles,  and  dispose  of 
them  for  less  than  he  was  offered  at  home.  An  old  woman 
was  trudging  along  one  day  with  a  heavy  basket  of  pineap¬ 
ples  and  other  fruits,  and  we  tried  to  relieve  her  of  part  of  her 
load,  offering  ten  cents  for  pineapples  which  could  be  had  for 
a  quartillo,  or  two  and  a  half  cents,  in  market.  She  was  polite 
but  firm,  and  declined  to  sell  anything  until  she  got  to  town, 
although  there  was  a  weary,  dusty  journey  of  two  leagues 
ahead  of  her.  The  guide  explained  that  she  was  suspicious  of 
the  high  price  we  offered,  and  imagined  that  pineapples  must 
be  very  scarce  in  market,  or  we  would  not  pay  so  much  on 
the  road ;  but  it  is  a  common  rule  for  them  to  refuse  to  sell 
except  at  their  regular  stand.  A  gentleman  who  fives  some 
distance  from  town  said  that  for  the  last  four  years  he  had 
been  trying  to  get  the  Indians,  who  passed  every  morning 
with  packs  of  alfalfa  (the  tropical  clover),  to  sell  him  some  at 
his  gate,  but  they  invariably  refused  to  do  so ;  consequently  he 
was  compelled  to  go  into  town  to  buy  what  was  carried  past 
his  own  door.  Hor  will  the  natives  sell  at  wholesale.  They 
will  give  you  a  gourdful  of  potatoes  for  a  penny  as  often  as 
you  like,  but  will  not  sell  their  stock  in  a  lump.  They  will 
give  you  a  dozen  eggs  for  a  real  (ten  cents),  but  will  not  sell 
vou  five  dozen  for  a  dollar.  This  dogged  adherence  to  custom 
cannot  be  accounted  for,  except  on  the  supposition  that  then’ 
suspicions  are  excited  by  an  attempt  to  depart  from  it. 

In  Ecuador  there  are  no  smaller  coins  than  the  quartillo, 
and  change  is  therefore  made  by  the  use  of  bread.  On  his 


QUITO. 


331 


way  to  market  the  purchaser  stops  at  the  bakery  and  gets  a 
dozen  or  twenty  breakfast -rolls,  which  cost  about  one  cent 
each,  and  the  market-women  receive  them  and  give  them  as 


A  TYPICAL  COUNTRY  MANSION. 


change  for  small  purchases.  If  you  buy  a  cent’s  worth  of 
anything  and  offer  a  quartillo  in  payment,  you  get  a  break- 
fast-roll  for  the  balance  due  you.  The  landlord  at  the  hotel 
requires  you  to  pay  your  board  in  advance,  because  he  has 
no  money  to  buy  food  and  no  credit  with  the  market -men; 
the  muleteers  ask  for  their  fees  before  starting,  because  their 
experience  teaches  them  wisdom.  There  is  scarcely  a  build¬ 
ing  in  the  whole  republic  in  process  of  construction  or  even 
undergoing  repairs.  Death  seems  to  have  settled  upon  every¬ 
thing  artificial,  but  Nature  is  in  her  grandest  glory. 


332 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Architecturally,  Quito  is  not  unlike  other  Spanish- American 
towns,  except  that  it  is  dirtier  and  a  little  more  dilapidated. 
There  is  not  even  an  excuse  for  a  hotel,  and  private  hospi¬ 
tality  is  restricted  by  the  poverty  of  the  people.  Few  peo¬ 
ple  ever  go  there — only  those  who  are  compelled — and  the 
demand  for  a  hotel  is  not  sufficient  to  justify  the  establish¬ 
ment  of  one.  One-fourth  of  the  entire  city  is  covered  with 
convents,  and  every  fourth  person  you  meet  is  a  priest,  or  a 
monk,  or  a  nun.  There  are  monks  in  gray,  monks  in  blue, 
monks  in  white,  monks  in  black,  and  orders  that  no  one  ever 

heard  of  before.  There 
are  all  sorts  of  priests, 
also,  in  all  sorts  of  rigs, 
wearing  the  outlandish 
hats  which  are  seen 
elsewhere  only  upon 
the  theatrical  stage. 
Some  of  the  holy  fa¬ 
thers  look  as  if  they 
had  just  been  “making 
up”  for  a  comic  opera, 
and  the  jolty  or  grim 
old  fellows  one  sees  in 
Vibert’s  pictures  are 
found  on  almost  every 
corner  in  Quito. 

At  the  entrance  to 
many  dwellings  may 
be  seen  the  figure  of 
a  saint  with  candles 
burning  around  it,  and 
the  people  appear  to 
be  continually  coming 
from  or  going  to  church.  The  bells  are  constantly  clanging, 
and  it  seems  to  a  stranger  as  if  the  entire  city  were  given  up 
to  perpetual  devotions.  The  next  most  noticeable  thing  is  the 
filthiness.  The  streets  are  used  as  water-closets,  in  daylight  as 


A  WAYSIDE  SHRINE. 


QUITO. 


333 


well  as  in  the  dark,  and  are  never  cleaned  from  one  year’s  end 
to  another.  There  are  no  wagons  or  carriages,  and  only  seldom 
can  a  cart  be  seen,  the  backs 
of  mules,  men,  and  women 
being  the  only  vehicles  of 
transportation.  There  is  an 
unaccountable  prejudice 
against  water  in  every  form, 
the  natives  believing  that  its 
frequent  use  will  cause  fe¬ 
vers  and  other  diseases. 

When  they  have  returned 
from  a  journey  they  never 
think  of  washing  their  faces 
for  several  days,  for  fear  of 
taking  a  fever,  but  wipe  off 
the  flesh  with  a  dry  towel. 

I  do  not  believe  a  Quito 
woman  ever  washes  her  face. 

She  keeps  it  constantly  cov¬ 
ered  with  chalk,  and  looks 
as  if  some  one  had  been  try¬ 
ing  to  whitewash  her.  I  do 
not  know  how  she  would  look  al  fresco,  but  she  has  beauti¬ 
ful  eyes,  bps,  and  teeth,  and  a  perfect  figure  till  she  reaches 
the  age  of  thirty-five  or  thereabouts,  after  which  she  becomes 
either  very  fat  or  very  lean. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  climate,  Quito  would  be  in  the  midst 
of  a  perpetual  pestilence ;  but  notwithstanding  the  prevailing 
filthiness,  there  is  very  little  sickness,  and  pulmonary  diseases 
are  unknown.  Mountain  fever,  produced  by  cold  and  a  tor¬ 
pid  liver,  is  the  commonest  type  of  disease.  The  population 
of  the  city,  however,  is  gradually  decreasing,  and  is  said  to 
be  now  about  sixty  thousand.  There  were  five  hundred 
thousand  people  at  Quito  when  the  Spaniards  came,  and  a 
hundred  years  ago  the  population  was  reckoned  at  double 
what  it  now  is.  Half  the  houses  in  the  town  are  empty,  and 


CHARCOAL  PEDDLER. 


334 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


to  see  a  new  family  moving  in  would  be  the  sensation  of  the 
decade.  Most  of  the  finest  residences  are  locked  and  barred, 
and  have  remained  so  for  years.  The  owners  are  usually 
political  exiles,  who  are  living  elsewhere,  and  can  neither 
sell  or  rent  their  property.  Political  revolutions  are  so  com¬ 
mon,  and  the  results  are  always  so  disastrous  to  the  unsuc¬ 
cessful,  that  there  is  a  constant  stream  of  fugitives  leaving  the 
State. 

Although  Ecuador  is  set  down  in  the  geographies  as  a  re¬ 
public,  it  is  simply  a  popish  colony,  and  the  power  of  the 
Vatican  is  nowhere  felt  so  completely  as  here.  The  return  of 
a  priest  from  a  visit  to  Pome  is  as  great  an  event  as  the  dec¬ 
laration  of  independence  ;  and  so  subordinated  is  the  State  to 
the  Church  that  the  latter  elects  the  President,  the  Congress, 
aniLthe  judges.  Not  long  ago  a  law  was  in  force  prohibiting 
the  importation  of  any  books,  periodicals,  or  newspapers  with¬ 
out  the  sanction  of  the  Jesuits.  A  crucifix  sits  in  the  audi¬ 
ence-chamber  of  the  President  and  on  the  desk  of  the  pre¬ 
siding  officer  of  Congress.  All  the  schools  are  controlled  by 
the  Church,  and  the  children  know  more  about  the  lives  of 
the  saints  than  about  the  geography  of  them  own  country. 
There  is  not  even  a  good  map  of  Ecuador. 

No  lady  ever  goes  to  mass  (and  all  go  once  a  da ,y)  without 
a  small  Indian  boy  or  a  maid-servant  following  her  with  a 
strip  of  carpet  or  hassock,  upon  which  she  kneels  during  serv¬ 
ice.  There  are  no  pews  in  the  churches,  but  the  floors  are 
marked  off  like  a  chess-board,  and  each  square  numbered. 
These  squares,  about  two  or  three  feet  in  dimensions,  are 
rented  to  those  who  belong  to  the  parish,  and  when  a  man 
goes  to  church  he  hunts  for  his  place  on  the  floor  and  kneels 
down  within  the  narrow  space. 

As  in  Mexico,  servants  go  in  droves.  Families  seldom  have 
less  than  four  or  five,  and  each  adult  brings  along  all  his  or 
her  kin,  who  are  expected  to  lodge  and  feed  with  the  father's 
or  mother's  employer.  But  it  does  not  cost  much  to  keep 
them,  and  the  wages  of  my  lady’s  maid  in  New  York  or 
Chicago  would  support  a  whole  village.  They  want  nothing 


QUITO. 


335 


but  black  beans,  called  frijoles,  and  tortillas.  Meat  and  bread 
are  unknown  luxuries. 

The  Spaniards  are  famous  for  their  politeness,  and  in  Ec¬ 
uador,  as  in  all  other  parts  of  South  America,  courtesy  is  a 
part  of  their  religion.  The  lowest,  meanest  man  in  Quito  is 
politeness  personified,  but  it  is  all  on  the  surface.  He  will 
stab  you  or  rob  you  as  soon  as  your  back  is  turned.  The 


GOVERNMENT  BUILDING  AT  QUITO. 

Ecuadorian  gentleman  will  promise  you  the  earth,  but  will 
not  give  you  even  a  pebble.  This  hypocrisy  results  in  mutual 
distrust.  Ho  one  ever  believes  what  is  said  to  him ;  partner¬ 
ships  in  business  are  seldom  formed,  and  corporations  are 
unknown.  If  a  man  gets  a  little  cash  he  never  invests  it  in 
public  enterprises,  but  keeps  it  in  a  stocking  for  fear  he  may 
be  swindled — and  the  fear  is  well  founded.  Only  the  Indians 


336 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


keep  faith,  and  that  exclusively  among  themselves.  To  steal 
from  a  Spaniard  they  consider  not  only  proper  hut  justifiable. 
The  Spaniards  stole  all  they  have  from  them.  They  never 
rob,  swindle,  or  betray  one  another.  They  are  as  faithful  as 
death  to  their  own  race. 

Once  upon  a  time  there  was  a  revolutionary  conspiracy 


COURT  OF  A  QUITO  DWELLING. 


among  the  Indians.  An  uprising  was  to  occur  simultane¬ 
ously  all  over  the  republic.  As  the  natives  could  neither 
read  nor  write,  they  were  given  bundles  of  sticks,  each  bun¬ 
dle  containing  the  same  number.  One  was  to  be  burned 


QUITO. 


337 


each  day,  and  the  night  after  the  last  was  burned  was  to 
see  the  uprising.  None  betrayed  the  secret.  Of  the  many 
thousands  who  were  admitted  to  the  conspiracy  not  one  vio¬ 
lated  faith. 

All  sorts  of  labor  are  done  in  the  most  primitive  manner. 
The  agriculturists  do  not  plough,  but  plant  the  seed  by  pok¬ 
ing  a  hole  in  the  ground  with  a  stick.  Threshing  and  corn¬ 
shelling  are  done  by  driving  horses  over  the  grain.  The 
hair  is  removed  from  hogs,  not  by  hot  water  and  scraping, 
but  by  burning.  Everything  is  done  in  the  slowest  and  most 
difficult  way.  For  that  reason,  and  because  the  interior  is 
so  isolated  from  the  rest  of  mankind,  the  country  does  not 
know  the  meaning  of  the  words  progress  and  prosperity. 
Until  the  influence  of  the  Romish  Church  is  destroyed,  until 
immigration  is  invited  and  secured,  Ecuador  will  be  a  desert 
rich  in  undeveloped  resources.  With  plenty  of  natural  wealth, 
it  has  neither  peace  nor  industry,  and  such  a  thing  as  a  sur¬ 
plus  of  any  character  is  unknown.  One  of  the  richest  of  the 
South  American  republics,  and  the  oldest  of  them  all,  it  is 
the  poorest  and  most  backward. 

On  the  south-west  side  of  Quito,  within  half  a  mile  of  the 
city’s  centre,  flows  the  Machangari  River,  a  small,  rapid,  and 
never  -  failing  stream.  The  rapid  fall  of  the  water  provides 
mill -sites  every  few  rods,  which  are  utilized  by  six  small 
flour -mills  and  a  small  manufactory  of  woollen  blankets. 
The  six  flour-mills,  having  a  total  of  eighteen  run  of  stone, 
give  employment  to  twenty -four  men,  whose  daily  wages 
range  from  twelve  to  twenty-five  cents.  In  the  whole  woollen 
blanket  manufactory  forty  persons  are  employed,  at  average 
daily  wages  of  twelve  cents.  Aside  from  the  water-motors 
mentioned,  the  only  motor  in  use  is  a  small  steam-engine  in  a 
suburban  village,  used  in  a  sugar  refinery  where  twelve  per¬ 
sons  work  for  wages  ranging  from  twelve  to  twenty  cents 
per  day.  The  manufacture  of  adobe,  hard  brick,  and  roof¬ 
ing-tile  is  carried  on  more  or  less  in  conjunction,  and  gives 
employment  to  about  three  hundred  men  and  women,  the 
women  exercising  the  right  of  doing  any  kind  of  work  per- 
22 


338 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


formed  bv  the  men.  ISo  machinery  is  used,  the  brick  and  tile 
being  moulded  by  hand  in  a  box.  These  workers  receive  each 
twelve  cents  a  day.  The  making  of  pottery  is  carried  on  in 
a  small  way  at  about  fifty  places,  furnishing  work  for  about 
one  hundred  persons,  who  when  hired  earn  twelve  cents  a 
day.  There  is  one  manufactory  of  silk  and  high  hats  at 
which  twelve  men  are  employed,  at  twenty-five  cents  a  day. 
There  are  also  about  fifty  places  at  which  Indian  felt  hats 
are  made,  a  total  of  one  hundred  persons  being  employed, 
with  wages  at  twelve  cents  a  day.  Matting  manufacturing 
is  carried  on  at  three  places,  at  which  hand-looms  only  are 
used.  The  material  employed  is  the  fibre  of  the  cactus, 
which  is  very  serviceable.  Thirty  persons  at  this  pursuit 
earn  from  eighteen  to  twenty  cents  per  day  wages.  There  is 
no  foundery  in  Quito,  and  all  of  the  iron-working  is  restricted 


WHAT  THE  EARTHQUAKES  LEFT 


QUITO. 


339 


to  what  is  done  in  a  few  blacksmith  shops.  There  is  one  com¬ 
bined  cart  and  blacksmith  shop,  at  which  carts  are  made  and 
general  repairing  is 
done,  employing  ten 
men  at  twenty  -  five 
cents  a  day.  The  in¬ 
dustries  mentioned 
have  long  been  es¬ 
tablished.  There  are 
also  numerous  tailor 
shops,  shoe-shops,  tin- 
shops,  and  carpenter 
shops.  At  the  latter 
are  made  sofas,  bu¬ 
reaus,  tables,  and  all 
other  articles  of  furni¬ 
ture  difficult  of  trans¬ 
portation  by  pack-an¬ 
imals.  Nearly  all  the 
chairs  in  use  were 
brought  from  the 
United  States,  packed 
in  parts,  and  were  put 
together  when  sold. 

Coffins  also  are  made 
at  the  carpenter  shops. 

All  of  the  work  done 
at  these  shops  is  done 
by  hand. 

The  only  industry 
that  has  sprung  up  in 
recent  years  is  that 
of  beer-making,  which 
has  been  inspired  and 
promoted  by  the  Ger¬ 
man  element.  There 

have  been  established  A  professional  beggar. 


340 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


twelve  breweries,  which  employ  a  total  of  one  hundred  and 
twenty  men,  at  average  daily  wages  of  twenty  cents.  The 
barley  used  is  of  native  growth,  and  is  bought  at  a  low  price. 
The  hops  are  imported  from  the  United  States  and  Europe, 
and  by  reason  of  expensive  transportation  are  very  costly. 

Though  Quito  has  a  population  of  about  sixty  thousand,  it 
has  had  for  a  long  period  considerable  note  as  a  place  of  art 
in  sculpture  and  painting,  and  has  several  public  -  schools  of 

ordinary  grade,  and 
three  universities,  in 
charge  of  the  priests, 
yet  it  has  never  been 
a  field  in  which  litera¬ 
ture  thrived,  or  the 
business  of  printing 
flourished.  It  contains 
no  newspaper,  and  but 
one  weekly  journal  is 
issued.  This  is  the  of- 
cial  paper,  and  is  de¬ 
voted  solely  to  the  pub¬ 
lication  of  official  docu¬ 
ments.  Its  circulation 
is  about  one  thousand 
copies,  exclusively 
among  government 
and  foreign  officials, 
and  is  gratuitous.  The  principal  printing  establishment  is 
owned  and  managed  by  the  Government,  in  which  twenty 
persons  are  employed.  Among  its  material  are  one  rotary 
press  (on  which  the  official  paper  is  printed),  five  hand-lever 
presses,  and  a  good  assortment  of  type.  A  o  work  is  done 
except  for  government  use.  There  are  five  other  small  print¬ 
ing  concerns,  each  employing  from  two  to  six  persons,  at 
which  is  done  the  miscellaneous  printing  of  the  public.  They 
use  nothing  but  hand-lever  presses.  The  presses  and  type 
were  purchased  in  the  United  States. 


AN  ECUADOR  BELLE. 


QUITO. 


341 


Revolutions  in  Ecuador  are  frequent,  and  they  usually  begin 
by  an  attempt  to  assassinate  the  President.  The  plan  of  pro¬ 
cedure  is  usually  for  the  discontented  political  faction  to  create 
a  mutiny  in  the  army,  either  by  bribes  to  the  officers  or  prom¬ 
ises  of  promotion.  As  the  private  soldiers  always  obey  their 
officers,  like  so  many  automatons,  and  are  as  willing  to  fight 
on  one  side  as  the  other,  to  secure  the  officers  is  to  secure  the 
army.  The  next  step  is  to  seize  the  barracks  and  arsenal,  put 
the  President  to  death,  proclaim  some  one  else  provisional 
dictator,  and  then  call  a  junta,  or  convention,  to  nominate  “  a 
constitutional  Executive.”  Senor  Caamano  seems  to  bear  a 
charmed  life,  for  during  his  term  of  four  years  as  President 
he  had  numerous  remarkable  escapes.  The  last  attempt  to 
assassinate  him  was  in  January,  1886,  while  he  was  jour¬ 
neying  from  Guayaquil  to  Quito.  He  was  riding,  as  travel¬ 
lers  usually  do,  by  night,  to  escape  the  heat  of  the  sun,  when 
his  small  escort  was  attacked  by  a  band  of  mountaineers,  and 
fled,  leaving  the  President  to  look  out  for  himself.  He  jumped 
from  his  horse,  ran  into  the  forest  which  lines  the  road,  and 
creeping  through  the  trees  to  the  river,  swam  to  the  other 
side,  and  made  his  way,  thirty  miles  on  foot,  to  the  hacienda 
of  a  friend,  where  he  knew  he  would  find  refuge.  For  two 
days  and  nights  he  was  in  the  forest  without  food,  and  when 
he  finally  reached  a  safe  haven  was  totally  exhausted.  For 
a  week  or  ten  days  he  lay  ill  with  a  fever,  but  couriers  were 
sent  to  Guayaquil  and  Quito  who  arrived  there  before  the 
reports  of  his  assassination,  and  assured  the  officials  of  the 
Government  of  his  safety.  At  the  same  time  a  mutiny  broke 
out  at  the  military  garrisons  in  both  cities,  but  was  quelled, 
and  the  leaders  summarily  shot. 

Since  the  inauguration  of  Don  Antonio  Flores  as  Presi¬ 
dent,  in  1888,  Ecuador  has  been  at  peace,  and  shows  bright 
promises  for  the  future.  He  is  the  foremost  statesman  of 
the  republic ;  has  ability,  wealth,  knowledge,  and  experience 
surpassing  most  of  his  fellow -citizens,  and,  what  is  equally 
effectual  among  the  Spanish- American  people,  the  prestige 
of  a  venerated  name.  His  father  was  a  Venezuelan,  and  at 


342 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


one  time  represented  New  Grenada  in  the  Cortes  at  Madrid. 
General  Flores  stood  with  Bolivar  at  the  head  of  the  Revo- 
lntion  for  Independence,  organized  the  Republic  of  Ecua¬ 
dor,  and  was  its  first  President.  The  son  has  inherited  his 
father’s  ability,  his  patriotism  and  zeal,  and  has  spent  his  life 
in  the  civil,  diplomatic,  judicial,  and  military  service.  lie 
did  not  seek  the  presidency,  and  therefoi’e  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  his  office  free  of  all  entanglements,  and  with  the 
one  purpose,  to  modernize  this  Hermit  of  Republics,  and  bi  ing 
its  people  to  the  standard  of  nineteenth  century  civilization. 

From  Guayaquil  to  Callao,  and  in  fact  to  the  end  of  the 
continent,  the  western  coast  of  South  America  presents  an 
unbroken  line  of  mountains,  with  a  strip  of  desert  between 
them  and  the  sea.  Occasionally  some  stream  from  the  mount¬ 
ains  brings  down  the  melted  snow  and  opens  an  oasis,  llicse 
oases  have  been  utilized  by  the  planters  as  far  back  as  the 
Conquest,  when  the  industrious  Jesuits  made  as  vigorous  a 
war  upon  the  desert  as  upon  the  Incas,  and  conquered  one 
as  easily  as  they  conquered  the  other.  AN  herever  this  barren 
strip  has  been  irrigated  it  produces  enormous  crops  of  sugar, 
coffee,  and  other  tropical  products,  and  the  whole  of  it  might 
be  redeemed  by  the  introduction  of  a  little  capital  and  indus- 
trv.  If  the  money  that  has  been  wasted  in  revolutions  had 
been  expended  in  the  development  of  its  mines;  and  the  sol¬ 
diers  had  dug  irrigating  ditches  with  as  much  ardor  as  they 
have  fought  each  other,  there  would  be  no  richer  country  on 
the  globe.  Wherever  the  Incas  touched  the  earth  it  pro¬ 
duced  in  profusion,  and  their  wealth  was  fabulous.  Their 
empire  extended  three  thousand  miles  north  and  south,  and 
about  four  hundred  miles  east  and  west,  from  the  Pacific  to 
the  great  forests  of  the  Amazon,  which  their  simple  tools  were 
unable  to  subdue. 

In  no  part  of  the  world  does  nature  assume  more  imposing 
forms.  Deserts  as  repulsive  as  Sahara  alternate  with  valleys 
as  rich  and  luxuriant  as  those  of  Italy.  Eternal  summer 
smiles  under  the  frown  of  eternal  snow.  The  rainless  region— 
this  desert  strip  which  lies  between  the  Andes  and  the  sea— is 


QUITO. 


343 


about  forty  miles  in  width,  and  the  panorama  presented  to 
the  voyager  is  a  constant  succession  of  bare  and  repulsive 
wastes  of  sand  and  rocks,  uninhabited,  whose  silence  is  brok¬ 
en  only  by  the  incessant  surf,  the  bark  of  the  sea-lions,  and 


A  HOTEL  ON  THE  COAST. 


the  screams  of  the  water-birds  which  haunt  its  wave-worn 
and  forbidding  shore.  The  coast  is  dotted  with  small  rocky 
islands,  which  have  been  the  roost  of  myriads  of  birds  for 
ages,  and  furnish  guano  for  commerce.  The  steamers  seem 


344 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


to  furnish  them  their  only  entertainment,  and  they  surround 
every  vessel  which  passes,  soaring  about  and  above  the  masts, 
screaming  defiance  to  the  invaders  of  their  resorts.  The 
water,  too,  is  full  of  animal  life.  Nowhere  does  the  sea  offer 
science  so  many  curious  forms  of  animate  nature ;  monsters 
unknown  to  northern  waters  can  be  seen  from  the  decks  of 
the  steamers,  and  at  night  their  movements  about  the  vessel 
are  shown  by  a  line  of  fire  which  always  follows  their  fins. 
The  water  is  so  strongly  impregnated  with  phosphorus  that 
every  wave  is  tipped  with  silver,  and  every  fish  that  darts 
about  leaves  a  brilliant  trail  like  that  of  a  comet.  The  larger 
fishes,  the  sharks  and  porpoises,  find  great  sport  in  swimming 
races  with  the  ship,  and  under  the  bowsprit  a  small  army  of 
them  are  to  be  seen  every  evening,  sailing  along  beside  the 
vessel,  darting  back  and  forth  before  its  bows,  leaping  and 
plunging  over  one  another.  Their  every  motion  is  apparent, 
and  the  outlines  of  their  bodies  are  as  distinct  as  if  drawn 
with  a  pencil  of  fire.  Nowhere  is  this  phenomenon  so  con¬ 
spicuous. 

The  first  point  beyond  Guayaquil  is  the  island  of  Puna, 
where  Pizarro  first  landed,  and  where  he  waited  with  a  squad 
of  thirteen  men  while  the  deserters  from  his  expedition  went 
back  to  Panama  in  his  ships,  promising  to  send  reinforce¬ 
ments,  which  afterwards  came.  Beside  Puna  is  the  famous 
Isle  del  Muerto  (dead  man’s  island),  which  looks  like  a 
corpse  floating  in  the  water.  Just  below,  and  the  northern¬ 
most  town  of  Peru,  is  Tumbez,  where  Pizarro  met  the  mes¬ 
sengers  from  Alahualpa's  army  who  came  to  ask  the  object 
of  his  visit. 

Behind  Tumbez  are  the  petroleum  deposits  of  Peru,  which 
have  been  known  to  the  natives  ever  since  the  times  of  the 
Incas,  but  they  were  ignorant  of  the  character  or  the  value  of 
the  oil.  A  Yankee  by  the  name  of  Larkin,  from  "Western  New 
York,  came  down  here  to  sell  kerosene,  and  recognized  the 
material  which  the  Indians  used  for  lubricating  and  coloring 
purposes  as  the  same  stuff  he  was  peddling.  An  attempt  has 
been  made  to  utilize  the  deposits,  which  are  very  extensive. 


QUITO. 


345 


but  so  far  they  have  not  been  successful  in  producing  a  burn¬ 
ing  fluid  that  is  either  safe  or  agreeable. 

At  each  of  the  little  ports  on  the  Peruvian  coast  the  steam¬ 
er  stops  and  takes  on  produce  for  shipment  to  Liverpool  or 
Germany.  These  towns  are  simply  collections  of  mud  huts, 
inhabited  by  fishermen  or  the  employes  of  the  steamship 
company,  dreary,  dusty,  and  dirty.  Back  in  the  country, 
along  the  streams  which  bring  fertility  and  water  down  from 
the  mountains,  are  places  of  commercial  importance,  the  resi¬ 
dences  of  rich  hacienda  owners,  and  the  scenes  of  historic 
events  as  well  as  prehistoric  civilization.  The  products  of 
the  country  are  sugar,  coffee,  cocoa,  and  cotton,  while  those 
of  the  town  are  “  Panama  ”  hats  and  fleas.  In  each  one  of 
the  ports  the  natives  are  busy  braiding  hats  from  vegetable 
fibres,  and  the  results  of  their  labor  find  a  market  at  Pan¬ 
ama  and  in  the  cities  of  the  coast,  where,  as  in  Mexico,  a 
man’s  character  is  judged  by  what  he  wears  on  his  head. 
The  hats  are  usually  made  of  toquilla ,  or  pita,  an  arbo¬ 
rescent  plant  of  the  cactus  family,  the  leaves  of  which  are 
often  several  yards  long.  When  cut,  the  leaf  is  dried,  and 
then  whipped  into  shreds  almost  as  fine  and  tough  as  silk. 
Some  of  these  hats  are  made  of  single  fibres,  with  not  a  splice 
or  an  end  from  the  centre  of  the  crown  to  the  rim.  It  often 
requires  two  or  three  months  to  make  them,  and  the  best  ones 
are  braided  under  water,  so  as  to  make  the  fibre  more  pliable. 
They  sometimes  cost  as  much  as  two  hundred  and  fifty  dol¬ 
lars,  but  last  a  lifetime,  and  can  be  packed  away  in  a  vest- 
pocket,  turned  inside  out,  and  worn  that  way,  the  inside  being 
as  smooth  and  well  finished  as  the  other.  The  natives  make 
beautiful  cigar-cases  too ;  but  it  is  difficult  for  a  stranger  to 
purchase  either  them  or  their  hats,  because  they  have  an  idea 
that  all  strangers  are  rich,  and  will  pay  any  price  that  is  asked. 
One  old  lady  offered  me  a  cigar-case  of  straw,  such  as  is  sold 
in  Japanese  stores  for  one  or  two  dollars,  and  politely  agreed 
to  sell  it  for  twenty  dollars.  When  I  told  her  I  could  get  a 
silver  one  for  that  price,  she  came  down  to  eighteen  dollars, 
then  to  twelve  dollars,  and  finally  to  one  dollar.  They  have 


346 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


no  idea  of  the  value  of  money,  and  are  habitually  imposed  upon 
by  local  traders,  who  exchange  food  for  their  straw-work  at 
merely  nominal  rates, and  then  sell  the  hats  at  enormous  figures. 

At  each  of  the  ports  where  the  steamer  stops  an  army  of 
officials  come  aboard  to  get  a  good  dinner  or  breakfast  and 


a  cocktail  or  two  at  the  expense  of  the  steamship  company. 
They  wear  gay  uniforms  and  swords,  and  there  is  usually  one 
inspector,  or  official,  for  every  ten  packages  of  merchandise. 

First,  there  is  the  “  cap¬ 
tain  of  the  port,”  with 
his  retinue ;  then  the 
governor  of  the  district, 
with  his  staff ;  then  the 
collector  of  customs, 
with  a  battalion  of  in¬ 
spectors  ;  and,  finally, 
the  commandante  of  the 
military  garrison  and  all 
his  subordinates.  The 
deck  of  the  vessel  fairly 
swarms  with  them,  and 
as  the  steamer's  arriv¬ 
al  is  the  only  event  to 
give  variety  to  the  mo- 
fiotony  of  their  fives, 
they  celebrate  it  for  all 
it  is  worth.  It  is  little 
wonder  that  the  gov¬ 
ernments  of  these  South 
American  countries  are 
poor,  with  all  these  tax- 
eaters  at  every  little 
town  of  four  or  five 
hundred  inhabitants. 
There  are  a  great 
many  more  railroads  in  Peru  than  is  generally  supposed. 
Nearly  all  of  the  coast  towns  have  a  fine  connecting  them 


CUSTOMS  OFFICERS 


QUITO. 


34 1 


with  the  plantations  of  the  interior ;  and  as  there  are  no  har¬ 
bors,  but  only  open  roadsteads,  expensive  iron  piers  have  been 
constructed  through  the  surf  from  which  merchandise  is  lifted 
into  barges  or  lighters  and  taken  to  the  ships,  which  anchor 


A  HOME  ON  THE  COAST. 


a  mile  or  so  from  the  shore.  Where  there  are  no  piers  the 
lighters  are  run  through  the  surf  when  the  tide  is  high,  are 
loaded  at  low  tide,  and  then  floated  off  to  buoys  to  await  the 
arrival  of  vessels. 

All  along  the  coast  there  is  a  system  of  “  deck  trading  ” 
carried  on  by  the  people  of  the  country.  Men  and  women 
come  on  board  with  market  produce,  fruits,  and  other  articles, 
which  are  strewn  about  the  deck,  and  are  sold  to  people  who 
visit  the  vessel  at  each  port  for  the  purpose  of  buying.  These 
traders  are  charged  passage-money  and  freight  by  the  steam¬ 
ship  companies,  but  are  a  nuisance  to  the  other  passengers. 
Each  female  trader  brings  a  mattress  to  sleep  upon,  a  chair 
to  use  during  the  day,  her  own  cooking  and  chamber  uten¬ 
sils,  and  spends  a  greater  part  of  her  life  abroad,  sailing  from 
one  port  to  another. 

At  Pavta  we  took  on  a  battalion  of  Peruvian  soldiers,  with 
one  brass-mounted  officer  to  every  seven  men.  The  Peruvian 


348 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


soldier  always  has  his  wife  with  him  ;  at  least  there  is  a  woman 
who  maintains  such  a  relation.  The  ceremony  of  marriage  is 
not  observed,  nor  is  it  to  any  great  extent  in  civil  life,  for 
the  expense  of  matrimony  is  so  great  that  among  the  cholos, 
as  the  peasants  are  called,  men  and  women  live  their  lives 
together  without  any  formality,  and  with  the  sanction  of  pub¬ 
lic  sentiment,  even  if  they  lack  the  sanction  of  the  law.  For 
this  the  Catholic  Church  is  responsible,  and  to  it  can  be  traced 
the  cause  of  the  illegitimacy  of  more  than  half  of  the  popula¬ 
tion.  The  fee  charged  by  the  priests  for  performing  the  cer¬ 
emony  of  marriage  is  so  excessive  that  the  poor  cannot  pay 
it ;  hence  marriage  is  practically  placed  under  what  may  be 
called  a  prohibitory  tariff.  This  prevails  in  all  of  the  South 
American  countries  where  the  Church  still  holds  its  power, 
but  in  those  which  are  now  under  the  control  of  the  Liberal 
party  the  rite  of  civil  marriage  has  been  established  by  law, 
and  the  ceremony  now  costs  from  twenty -five  cents  to  a  dollar. 

With  each  company  of  Peruvian  troops  is  a  squad  of  women 
called  rabonas ,  generally  one  to  every  three  or  four  men,  vol¬ 
unteers  who  serve  without  pay  but  receive  rations,  and  are 
given  transportation  by  the  Government.  They  are  always 
with  the  men — in  camp,  on  the  march,  and  in  battle.  In  camp 
they  do  the  cooking  and  other  necessary  work  ;  on  the  march 
they  share  the  exposure  and  fatigue,  being  treated  exactly  as 
the  men  are,  and  do  most  of  the  foraging  for  the  messes  to 
which  they  belong.  In  battle  they  nurse  their  own  wounded, 
rob  the  dead,  cut  the  throats  of  enemies  whom  they  find  lying 
alive  on  the  field,  carry  water  and  ammunition,  and  perform 
other  brutal  or  useful  services.  They  are  always  enumerated 
in  the  rosters  of  troops  and  in  the  reports  of  casualties,  which 
read  :  so  many  men  and  so  many  rabonas  killed  and  wounded; 
for  they  share  the  soldier's  death  as  well  as  his  privations. 

Some  of  these  wives  of  the  regiment  have  children  with 
them,  and  there  is  scarcely  a  company  without  a  dozen  or 
so  little  youngsters,  without  any  clew  to  their  paternity,  fol¬ 
lowing  their  mothers’  heels.  They  are  poor,  miserable,  de¬ 
graded  creatures,  just  one  degree  above  the  dogs  with  which 


QUITO. 


349 


and  draws  out  a  few  grains  of  powder  to  leaven  a  lump  of 
leaves  she  is  constantly  chewing.  The  poor  children  have  the 
hardest  time,  for  they  are  always  without  rest  or  shelter,  and 
often  without  food.  But  it  is  the  experience  they  are  born 
into,  and  they  know  nothing  of  a  better  life.  The  officers 
told  me  that  the  children  often  die  on  the  march,  when  their 
mothers  strip  the  clothes  from  them,  and  throw  the  bodies 


they  sleep.  Their  powers  of  endurance  are  extraordinary. 
Often  it  is  the  case  that  they  will  march  twenty  or  thirty 
miles  over  a  dusty  road,  carrying  a  child  on  their  back,  with¬ 
out  water  or  food.  When  the  latter  is  scarce  they  eat  leaves 
of  the  coca-tree,  which  when  mixed  with  lime  are  said  to  be 
very  palatable  and  nourishing.  Each  woman  carries  a  little 
bag  of  lime  round  her  neck,  into  which  she  dips  her  fingers 


PERUVIAN  SOLDIER  AND  RABONA. 


350 


THE  CAPITALS  OE  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


into  the  sand  or  woods,  without  even  a  burial  or  a  tear,  glad 
to  be  relieved  of  an  encumbrance  by  death. 

With  the  battalion  which  boarded  our  steamer  at  Payta 
were  two  women  and  thirty  children.  They  were  quartered 
upon  the  hurricane-deck,  without  any  shelter  but  the  starlit 
tropic  sky,  and  were  packed  in,  men  and  women  together,  like 
steers  in  a  cattle-car.  Water  and  food  were  furnished  them, 
the  latter  consisting  only  of  frijoles  and  tortillas.  Instead  of 
complaining  of  their  beds  upon  the  surface  of  the  shelterless 
deck,  the  soldiers  told  me  that  it  was  the  most  comfortable 
place  they  had  found  for  months,  and  would  be  glad  to  stay 
there  always ;  but  the  passengers  and  officers  of  the  ship  would 
have  objected,  as  the  stench  that  came  from  them  was  some¬ 
thing  horrible,  resembling  that  which  is  usually  noticed  in  a 
crowded  emigrant-car. 

One  night,  on  the  unsheltered  deck  of  the  vessel,  without 
surgical  assistance  or  even  the  knowledge  of  the  officers  or 
crew,  a  child  was  born.  The  mother  wrapped  it  in  an  old 
blanket  and  laid  it  down  upon  the  boards.  Thirty-six  hours 
afterwards  she,  with  the  rest  of  the  party,  climbed  down  the 
ship’s  side  on  a  ladder,  got  into  a  launch  in  which  there  was 
scarcely  standing-room,  and  was  towed  to  shore,  where  a  long 
and  tiresome  march  into  the  mountains  was  to  be  begun  the 
same  night.  On  her  arms  was  the  baby,  and  on  her  back  was 
a  bag  which  looked  as  if  it  weighed  fifty  or  sixty  pounds. 
She  was  a  mere  girl,  perhaps  sixteen  or  seventeen  years  of 
age,  and  they  said  it  was  her  first  baby,  of  which  she,  like 
all  young  mothers,  was  uncommonly  proud.  This  appeared 
to  be  a  commonplace  occurrence,  for  it  was  scarcely  noticed 
by  the  other  women  or  men  of  the  crowd,  and  when  I  asked 
an  officer  which  of  his  company  was  the  father  of  the  child, 
he  replied,  “ Dios  sale  ”  (God  knows).  lie  said  there  had  been 
four  similar  accouchements  in  his  company  within  six  months, 
and  that  he  thought  the  mothers  and  babies  were  all  doing 
well. 

“Will  the  child  live?”  I  asked  the  surgeon. 

“  Live  ?  yes  ;  you  couldn’t  drown  it.” 


QUITO. 


351 


The  custom  of  having  rabonas  with  the  army  grew  out  of 
the  habit  the  Indians  had  of  taking  their  wives  to  war,  and 
the  marital  ties  became  slackened  by  common  consent.  The 
Government  not  only  licenses  but  encourages  the  practice,  as 
it  makes  the  men  more  contented,  and,  as  a  sanitary  measure, ' 
the  surgeons  say,  is  beneficial.  The  ratio  of  disease  is  very 
small  in  the  armies  where  the  rabonas  are  allowed,  as  com¬ 
pared  with  that  in  others,  and  any  experienced  surgeon  can 
see  why  this  is  so. 

All  the  private  soldiers  in  South  America,  at  least  upon 
the  west  coast,  are  Indians  or  negroes,  and  all  the  officers 
white.  A  white  man,  a  Spaniard,  whatever  be  his  station  in 
life,  cannot  be  forced  or  persuaded  to  carry  a  musket.  During 
the  defence  of  Lima  against  the  army  of  Chili,  however,  law¬ 
yers,  merchants,  clerks,  and  everybody,  regardless  of  caste  or 
condition,  served  in  the  ranks  as  they  did  during  our  war,  but 
without  uniform.  They  would  fight  in  defence  of  their  homes, 
but  were  too  proud  to  wear  the  uniform  of  a  common  soldier. 
Hence  the  rank  and  file  is  composed  chiefly  of  Indians,  or 
cholos,  a  term  which  is  used  to  designate  the  mixed  race 
descended  from  the  ancient  and  aboriginal  Inca  and  his  con¬ 
queror  the  Spaniard.  There  are  very  few  full-blooded  Ind¬ 
ians  in  the  country,  for  during  the  three  hundred  and  fifty 
years  of  Spanish  supremacy  the  original  inhabitants  were 
almost  entirely  exterminated.  There  are  a  good  many  ne¬ 
groes  and  Chinamen  in  Peru  who  are  mixed  with  the  natives 
indiscriminately,  and  they  all  go  to  compose  the  cholos. 

There  are  military  schools  for  the«education  of  officers,  and 
the  line  and  staff  of  the  armies  are  made  up  of  the  sons  of 
the  aristocracy,  as  in  Germany  and  England.  They  wear  a 
very  gaudy  uniform,  and  always  appear  in  it,  whether  on 
duty  or  not.  Officers  are  never  seen  in  anything  but  full 
military  dress,  with  plenty  of  gold  lace  and  “  flubdubs.” 

The  soldiers  are  all  “  volunteers.”  Conscription  is  forbid¬ 
den  by  the  constitution  of  most  of  the  republics,  and  a  “  vol¬ 
unteer”  is  an  Indian  who  is  captured  on  the  highway,  or  in  a 
saloon,  or  at  his  home,  and  locked  up  until  there  are  enough 


352 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


to  send  to  headquarters,  where  he  is  taken  before  a  recruit¬ 
ing-officer,  and  made  to  sign  a  statement  setting  forth  that  he 
“  volunteered  ”  to  serve  his  country  as  long  as  his  services 
are  needed.  Then  his  hands  are  tied  behind  him,  and  he  is 

lashed  to  a  dozen  or  more 
other  “  volunteers,”  who 
are  driven  down  to  the 
garrison,  where  uniforms 
are  put  on  them,  muskets 
furnished,  and  they  are 
turned  over  to  a  drill-ser¬ 
geant,  who  puts  them 
through  the  simple  tac¬ 
tics  until  they  know  how 
to  carry  a  gun  and  fire  it. 

I  saw  a  drove  of  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  of 
these  “  volunteers  ”  come 
into  Lima  one  day,  tied  up 
like  chickens  or  turkeys  in 
bunches  of  ten  each,  with 
an  escort  of  twenty  men, 
who  had  probably  gone  through  the  same  process  of  “  volun¬ 
teering  ”  a  year  or  so  before,  and  rather  enjoyed  the  remon¬ 
strances  of  the  conscripts.  Behind  the  column  came  seventy- 
five  or  so  women,  weeping  and  chattering,  and  some  of  them 
had  children  tugging  at  their  hands  and  skirts.  The  women 
could  stay  with  their  husbands  if  they  liked,  and  become 
rabonas,  and  probably  most  of  them  did.  ith  such  mate¬ 
rial  composing  its  army  did  Peru  attempt  to  defend  its  coast 
and  cities,  with  their  enormous  wealth,  against  assault  by 
Chili. 

The  soldiers  of  Chili  are  of  an  entirely  different  sort.  They 
are  naturally  belligerent,  and  in  the  late  war  with  Peru 
were  promised  free  license  to  plunder.  The  soldiers  of  Peru 
were  peaceable,  quiet,  inoffensive  cholos,  a  silent,  suffering 
race  of  people  who  had  served  under  a  system  of  peonage 


QUITO. 


353 


all  their  lives,  had  no  idea  what  they  were  fighting  for,  and 
made  as  weak  a  defence  as  possible.  Whenever  they  met 
the  Chillanos  in  battle  they  always  fled,  even  when  they 
outnumbered  the  enemy ;  for  the  Chillano,  reckless,  daring, 
and  combative,  never  remained  in  line  of  battle,  but  always 
fought  with  a  charge  and  a  whoop,  carrying  everything  be¬ 
fore  him,  taking  no  prisoners,  but  cutting  the  throat  of  every 
man  he  could  reach. 

The  battle  of  Arica  is  a  good  example  of  all  the  engage¬ 
ments  of  the  war  between  Chili  and  Peru.  South  of  that 
town,  which  lies  upon  the  Pacific  coast,  rises  a  great  hill  or 
promontory  twelve  hundred  feet,  and  almost  perpendicular, 
out  of  the  sea,  and  then  slopes  off  at  a  steep  grade  to  the  plain 
behind  it.  Upon  the  peak  of  this  precipice  the  Peruvians 
placed  a  heavy  battery  for  the  protection  of  the  city,  manned 
by  about  twelve  hundred  soldiers.  The  Chillano  men-of-war 
came  in  one  day  and  engaged  this  fort  in  an  artillery  duel  at 
long  range  which  lasted  until  nightfall.  During  the  dark¬ 
ness  about  two  thousand  soldiers  were  landed  above  the  town ; 
they  flanked  it,  and  creeping  carefully  to  the  foot  of  the  hill, 
lay  until  daylight,  when  they  dashed  up  the  slope  with  a  fear¬ 
ful  charge.  The  cannon  were  all  turned  seaward,  and  were  use¬ 
less  ;  the  men  were  surprised  in  their  sleep,  and  the  demoral¬ 
ization  among  the  Peruvians  was  so  great  that  scarcely  a  shot 
was  fired.  Being  shut  off  from  escape,  they  jumped  over  the 
precipices  into  the  sea,  preferring  drowning  to  having  their 
throats  cut  with  the  knives  of  the  Chillanos,  who  always 
carry  them  for  that  purpose.  This  was  known,  and  always 
will  be  known,  as  the  Arica  massacre,  for  nearly  three-fourths 
of  the  Peruvians  were  slaughtered. 

The  island  of  San  Lorenzo,  which  was  once  the  seat  of  a 
powerful  fortress,  protects  the  harbor  of  Callao,  the  second 
port  on  the  Pacific  coast  of  South  America  in  population  and 
commercial  importance.  It  is  the  headquarters  of  the  steam¬ 
ship  lines  and  of  the  great  mercantile  houses,  and  the  popu¬ 
lation  is  about  one-half  of  foreign  birth.  One  can  hear  all 
the  languages  of  the  earth  spoken  at  Callao,  and  when  we 
23 


354 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


•urived  upon  the  clock  there  was  a  group  to  illustrate  the 
cosmopolitan  character  of  the  citizens.  A  Chinaman  an 
Arab  a  neoro,  and  a  Frenchman  were  sitting  upon  a  box, 
■while  around  them  were  clustered  Spaniards,  Englishmen 
Irishmen,  Germans,  and  Italians.  The  city  is  irregular  an 
shabby -looking,  but  has  been  a  place  of  great  wealth.  Mill¬ 
ions  after  millions  of  dollars'  worth  of  silver  have  been 
shipped  from  here  by  the  Spaniards-silver  stolen  from  the 
temples  of  the  Incas,  or  dug  from  the  mines  which  they  ope  - 
ated  before  the  Spaniards  came.  It  was  here  that  the  old  buc¬ 
caneers  used  to  rendezvous  and  waylay  the  galleons  on  their 
wav  to  Spain.  Of  recent  yearn  the  importance  of  Callao  lias 
very  much  decreased.  A  constant  succession  of  wars  and 
revolutions  in  Peru  has  destroyed  its  commerce;  and  al¬ 
though  there  is  usually  a  great  deal  of  shipping  in  the  har- 
bor  the  present  amount  of  trade  is  below  that  of  the  past. 
There  are  two  lines  of  railroad  to  Lima,  the  capital  of  the  re- 
Jubhc,  which  lies  six  miles  up  in  the  foot-hills  of  the  Andes. 


LIMA. 


THE  CAPITAL  OF  PERU. 

Although  the  glory  of  Lima  has  long  since  faded,  it  is  easy 
to  see  how  grand  and  beautiful  the  place  was  in  the  days  of 
its  ancient  prosperity,  when  it  was  called  “  The  City  of  the 
Kings.”  Few  places  possess  such  historical  or  romantic  inter¬ 
est  as  this  old  vice-regal,  bigoted,  corrupt,  licentious  capital  of 
Peru,  the  second  city  founded  by  the  Spaniards  in  South  Amer¬ 
ica,  and  the  seat  of  Spanish  power  for  more  than  three  centu¬ 
ries.  Pizarro  selected  the  location,  and  founded  the  city  on 
the  6th  of  January,  1535,  that  being  the  anniversary  of  the 
manifestation  of  the  Saviour  to  the  wise  men,  the  Magi.  The 
pious  old  cutthroat  called  it  “  The  City  of  the  Kings  ” — Ciu¬ 
dad  de  los  Reyes.  The  Emperor  gave  the  infant  capital  a 
coat  of  arms  of  his  own  design,  being  three  golden  crowns 
upon  an  azure  field,  with  a  star  above  them.  But  the  name 
Lima,  which  was  an  Inca  term  to  denote  the  presence  of  an 
oracle  near  where  the  city  stood,  was  at  once  applied  to  the 
place  by  the  natives,  and  being  so  much  easier  to  pronounce, 
soon  forced  itself  into  common  usage  in  spite  of  Pizarro  and 
the  King,  and  is  now  alone  recognized. 

The  population  of  Lima  is  about  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
five  thousand.  It  has  been  much  larger,  for  during  the  last 
twelve  years  war  and  decay  have  been  the  rule,  and  peace 
and  growth  the  exception.  Before  that  time  there  had  been 
quite  a  “  boom,”  owing  to  the  energy  of  Henry  Meiggs,  the 
California  fugitive,  and  to  the  introduction  of  railroads ;  but 
the  devastation  of  foreign  invaders  and  the  havoc  of  domes¬ 
tic  revolutionists  have  made  Lima  only  a  pitiful  shadow  of 
its  former  greatness. 


356 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  churches  and  convents  and  monasteries  of  Lima  are 
the  finest  and  most  expensive  in  America,  while  the  archi¬ 
tecture  of  private  structures  surpasses  that  of  any  other  Span¬ 
ish- American  city  except  Santiago.  The  old  palace  of  Pizarro, 


;  Montorico 
Chico 


Chacarilla 


,  Vasquei 
Salamanca, 


fxeboB 


_Ordueca 


Panto  on  ASxjtfh 
Alaxanb 
La  Ch*carllla_ 


^San  Borja 

Tuuuxoi 

IacoLToa^-^ 


SURGO 
'  Isn.Tadct 


jla-Terces 


<A  PALMA 


^  lr:vl< 


CEROO  S 
CRlSTOe, 


RAILWAY 


Artlllo 


Huerta* 

i'/ .  "ri  (h 


Lobaton 


-JTA  Y  OF 
ORRILFX^= 


Torres*'  > 
MlroneM 


r  PaAJ  A 


Camino  \\ 

I  R..1 

0  Puente 


Roles  of  A., 
□  atilt*  City  rt) 
5  Onoh*  o 
lr„„.  M"»i 


i.THL  POINT 


English  Chains 


LIMA  AND  ITS  ENVTRONS. 


which  was  erected  by  him  when  the  city  was  founded,  and  in 
which  he  was  assassinated,  is  still  used  for  the  offices  of  the 
Government ;  while  the  Senate  occupies  the  council-chamber 
of  the  old  Inquisition  building,  which  is  famous  for  its  ceiling 


LIMA. 


357 


of  carved  work,  and  infamous  for  the  cruel  and  bloody  work 
that  has  been  done  within  its  walls.  This  ceiling  was  im¬ 
ported  from  Spain  in  the  year  1560,  and  was  carved  by  the 
monks  of  the  mother -country  as  a  gift  to  the  Inquisition 
council  of  the  new.  Here  sat  the  most  extensive  and  impor¬ 
tant  dependency  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  extending  its  juris¬ 
diction  over  the  whole  of  the  Hew  World,  roasting  heretics 
upon  live  coals  or  stretching  them  upon  the  rack,  long  after 
the  Inquisition  in  Europe  had  ceased  to  exist.  The  torture- 
room,  which  adjoined  the  council-chamber,  is  now  a  retiring- 
room  for  the  Senate,  while  the  dark  pockets  in  the  walls,  in 
which  heretics  were  sealed  up  until  they  wrere  smothered,  are 
used  as  closets  and  wardrobes. 

The  Chamber  of  Deputies  occupies  the  ancient  home  of  the 
College  of  St.  Marcas,  the  oldest  institution  of  learning  in 
America,  founded  by  the  Society  of  Jesus  in  1551,  sixty-nine 
years  before  the  Pilgrims  landed  at  Plymouth. 

The  San  Franciscan  convent  and  church  are  two  of  the 
most  extensive  structures  in  the  whole  of  America,  and  cost 
as  much  as  the  Capitol  at  Washington,  if  not  more.  The 
whole  interior  is  covered  with  the  most  beautiful  tiles,  which 
have  stood  the  test  of  three  centuries,  and  still  surpass  the 
best  that  modern  genius  can  produce.  These  tiles  are  cele¬ 
brated  all  over  Europe,  not  only  for  the  enormous  quantity 
of  them — for  they  cover  many  acres  of  surface — but  for  the 
beauty  of  their  design  and  perfect  finish.  In  this  convent  is 
shown  the  bed  on  which  St.  Francis  died,  the  sack-cloth  robe 
that  he  wore,  his  sandals,  his  rosary,  and  the  coffin  in  which 
his  body  was  taken  to  Rome.  The  monk  who  acted  as  our 
cicerone  insisted  that  the  founder  of  his  order  died  in  the 
room  in  which  these  relics  were,  and  pointed  out  the  exact 
spot  where  he  breathed  his  last ;  but  a  brief  cross-examina¬ 
tion  brought  him  up  to  an  explanation  that  he  meant  that 
this  room  was  modelled  upon  the  one  in  which  St.  Francis 
died. 

Lima  did  produce  a  saint,  however — Santa  Rosa,  a  woman 
who  was  famous  for  her  wealth,  her  beauty,  her  self-abnega- 


358 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tion,  and  her  devotion  to  the  Church,  and  was  canonized  by 
Pope  Clement  X.  in  1671.  Her  remains  lie  in  the  Church  of 
Santo  Domingo,  and  an  extensive  convent  has  been  erected  in 
her  honor.  She  was  the  only  American  ever  canonized,  and 
the  fact  that  a  Peruvian  received  this  exclusive  honor  has 
made  her  not  only  the  patron  saint,  but  one  of  the  great  fig¬ 
ures  in  the  history  of  the  Catholic  Church  on  this  continent. 


A  PERUVIAN  INTERIOR- 


The  anniversary  of  her  birth  is  always  celebrated  throughout 
South  America,  and  the  third  centennial,  which  occurred  m 
April,  1SS6,  was  the  occasion  of  one  of  the  grandest  demon¬ 
strations  ever  seen  on  the  coast  of  the  South  Pacific. 

Six  months  before,  the  most  reverend  archbishop  at  Dima, 
the  dean  of  the  Catholic  hierarchy  in  Spanish  America, 
issued  an  eloquent  pastoral,  calling  upon  his  flock  to  unite 
with  him  in  honoring  the  memory  of  Santa  Rosa,  the  only 


LIMA. 


359 


American  saint  and  the  patroness  of  two  continents.  The 
invitation  was  generously  responded  to.  The  Government 
immediately  made  as  liberal  an  appropriation  of  money  as 
was  possible  in  the  depleted  condition  of  the  treasury;  pri¬ 
vate  citizens  and  corporations  contributed  to  the  funds,  and  a 
commission  of  distinguished  persons  was  appointed  to  form  a 
programme  of  the  festivities.  A  cordial  invitation  was  sent 
by  the  archbishop  to  the  principal  religious  dignitaries  in 
South  and  Central  America  and  Mexico  to  visit  Lima  on  this 
memorable  occasion,  and  to  accept  the  national  hospitality. 

On  the  26th  the  ceremonies  were  commenced.  The  body 
of  Santa  Rosa  waS  taken  from  its  resting-place  in  the  Church 
of  Santo  Domingo,  and  borne  in  solemn  procession  to  the 
church  erected  in  her  honor.  The  day  was  declared  a  holi¬ 
day.  From  every  house-top  flags  and  streamers  were  float¬ 
ing  ;  the  different  legations  and  consulates  hoisted  their  na¬ 
tional  emblems ;  flowers  were  strewn  in  the  streets  through 
which  the  cortege  was  to  pass ;  and  from  the  windows  and 
balconies  hung  superb  drapery  of  silk  and  velvet.  The  re¬ 
mains  of  the  saint,  deposited  in  a  beautifully  ornamented  urn, 
were  carried  on  the  shoulders  of  the  Dominican  monks,  and 
the  mayor  and  municipality  of  the  city,  with  the  few  remain¬ 
ing  survivors  of  the  War  of  Independence,  acted  as  the  guard 
of  honor.  The  municipal  and  private  schools  of  both  sexes 
followed,  the  little  girls  charmingly  dressed  in  white  and  blue, 
the  favorite  colors  of  Santa  Rosa,  and  with  garlands  of  roses 
in  their  hands.  Along  the  route  the  different  fire  brigades 
had  erected  artistic  arches  from  their  ladders  and  apparatus, 
and  as  the  procession  passed,  white  doves  were  loosened  from 
their  fastenings,  and  flew  gracefully  amid  the  banners  and 
canopies  overhanging  the  streets.  In  some  of  the  streets 
traversed  carpets  were  laid  down  and  covered  with  roses. 
Arriving  at  the  Church  of  Santa  Rosa  of  the  Fathers,  the 
precious  urn  was  deposited  on  the  altar,  surrounded  by  a  daz¬ 
zling  blaze  of  light,  and  was  watched  over  during  the  night 
by  a  special  guard  of  honor. 

The  next  day  the  same  ceremony  was  repeated,  the  object 


360 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


being  to  carry  the  remains  of  the  saint  to  those  places  with 
which  her  life  was  most  intimately  associated.  Thus  the 
Convent  of  Santa  Catalina,  the  Church  of  Santa  Rosa  of  the 
Mine — establishments  founded  by  the  intercession  of  the  Rose 
of  Peru — were  visited,  and  the  final  ceremonies  were  per¬ 
formed  at  the  cathedral.  The  interior  of  the  cathedral,  larger 
than  the  cathedral  in  New  York,  was  handsomely  decorated 
with  hangings  of  scarlet  velvet  bound  with  gold ;  the  superb 
altar,  with  its  pillars  cased  in  silver,  covered  with  fights  and 
flowers ;  and  the  venerable  archbishop,  with  his  numerous 
retinue  of  monsignori,  canons,  and  friars,  officiated  at  the 
solemn  high-mass,  with  the  votive  offering' especially  permit¬ 
ted  by  the  Holy  Father,  in  reply  to  a  request  from  the  Lima 
ecclesiastics. 

The /square  without  was  filled  by  troops  from  the  citadel 
of  Santa  Catalina,  national  salutes  were  fired,  and  all  Lima 
in  gala  dress  was  in  the  streets.  1  he  Ministers  of  State,  the 
Justices  of  the  Supreme  and  Superior  courts,  and  all  of  the 
principal  authorities,  joined  in  the  procession,  which,  after 
the  conclusion  of  the  ceremony  at  the  cathedral,  proceeded 
to  Santo  Domingo  to  deposit  the  remains  underneath  the 
grand  altar,  where  for  nearly  three  centuries  they  have 
rested. 

Santa  Rosa  was  born  at  Lima  in  the  year  1586.  She  was  of 
humble  parents,  her  father  being  a  matchlock  man  in  the  escort 
of  the  viceroy,  and  her  mother  a  woman  of  the  lower  class. 
She  was  christened  under  the  name  of  Isabel,  but  while  yet 
an  infant  the  beautiful  color  appearing  on  her  cheeks  caused 
her  to  be  called  Rosa.  From  her  earliest  years  she  manifested 
a  deep  religious  spirit,  and  although  poor  in  the  world’s 
goods,  her  extraordinary  charity  and  self-sacrifice  for  the 
poor  and  sick  brought  her  into  the  notice  of  the  people.  Re¬ 
fusing  all  the  inducements  and  invitations  to  enter  upon  a 
monastic  life,  she  steadily  dedicated  her  efforts  towards  doing 
good.  Many  miraculous  cures  are  attributed  to  her.  She 
died  in  1617.  Shortly  after  her  death  the  authorities  of  Lima 
petitioned  the  archbishop  that  the  necessary  investigation  be 


LIMA. 


361 


initiated  to  establish  her  sanctity,  and  when  the  proofs  were 
obtained  they  were  laid  before  Pope  Urban  YIII.  at  Pome, 
who  in  1625  sent  a  commission  to  Lima  to  conclude  the  in¬ 
vestigation.  After  due  consideration  of  the  facts  presented 
to  the  Holy  College  at  Rome,  Pope  Clement  IX.,  in  1668, 
ordered  the  canonization  of  Rosa  under  the  title  of  St.  Rosa 
of  Lima. 

In  Lima,  for  a  population  of  about  one  hundred  and  twenty 
thousand,  there  are  one  hundred  and  twenty  -  six  Catholic 
churches  and  twelve  monasteries  and  convents ;  and  the  same 
religious  privileges  extend  ah  over  Peru.  There  are  two 
Protestant  churches  in  the  republic.  One  of  them  is  in  Lima, 
and  is  usually  without  a  pastor,  being  of  the  Church  of  Eng¬ 
land  school,  and  supported  by  the  English-speaking  residents ; 
the  other  is  at  Callao,  and  an  active  young  Protestant,  Rev. 
Mr.  Thompson,  formerly  of  Philadelphia,  is  its  pastor.  The 
church  is  unsectarian,  and  is  largely  sustained  by  the  Pacific 
Steam  Navigation  Company,  a  British  corporation  which  has 
a  monopoly  of  commerce  on  the  west  coast,  and  keeps  its 
headquarters  at  Callao.  No  attempt  at  Protestant  mission¬ 
ary  work  has  ever  been  made  in  Peru,  although  Mr.  Thomp¬ 
son  says  the  field  is  very  inviting.  His  time  is  spent  mostly 
among  the  sailors  who  haunt  Callao  by  the  hundreds,  and  in 
looking  after  the  English  -  speaking  congregation  under  his 
charge.  There  is  no  Sunday  in  Peru.  The  shops  are  open 
on  that  day  as  usual,  and  in  the  afternoon  bull-fights,  cock¬ 
fights,  and  similar  entertainments  are  always  held.  The 
women  invariably  go  to  mass  in  the  morning,  and  repre¬ 
sent  the  entire  family,  as  very  few  men  are  ever  seen  in 
the  churches.  Under  President  Prado,  from  1869  to  1876, 
the  Catholic  Church  was  subjected  to  the  same  sort  of  treat¬ 
ment  it  has  received  in  the  other  republics,  but  his  success¬ 
ors  were  more  hospitable  towards  the  priests,  and  the  Church 
is  regaining  much  of  its  ancient  influence.  Some  of  the  con¬ 
fiscated  monasteries  have  been  restored,  and  a  bishop  presides 
over  the  lower  branch  of  the  national  legislature,  having  been 
elected  by  a  popular  vote  in  one  of  the  interior  cities.  He  is 


362 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


a  jolly-looking  old  padre,  rosy  and  rotund,  and  lias  not  the 
appearance  of  suffering  much  mortification  of  the  flesh. 

The  bones  of  Pizarro,  the  Indian  butcher,  lie  in  the  crypt 
of  the  grand  cathedral  which  he  built  in  1510,  and  which 
is  still  the  most  imposing  ecclesiastical  edifice  in  all  Amer¬ 
ica.  It  is  said  to  have  cost  nine  million  dollars ;  and  that 
amount  may  have  been  spent  upon  it,  but  the  money  came 
from  the  old  Inca  temples,  which  were  robbed  of  their  gold 
and  silver  ornaments  and  stripped  of  their  carved  timbers  by 
the  Spaniards.  The  latter  never  produced  anything  in  Peru 
by  tlidr  own  efforts.  They  simply  expended  their  plunder 
for  the  benefit  of  themselves  and  the  Church.  Of  the  ninety 
millions  of  dollars  in  silver  and  gold  which  Pizarro  is  said  to 
have  realized  from  his  evangelical  work  among  the  Indians, 
the  King  of  Spain  got  one-fifth  and  the  Church  even  a  larger 
share,  so  that  it  could  afford  to  build  cathedrals  and  convents 
as  fine  as  those  of  Europe,  and  endow  them  with  fabulous 
wealth.  Prescott  says  that  from  a  single  Inca  temple  Pizarro 
took  21,800  pounds  of  gold  and  82,000  pounds  of  silver.  One 
of  his  lieutenants  asked  for  the  nails  which  supported  the 
ornaments  in  this  temple,  and  got  22,000  ounces  of  silver. 
It  was  this  money  that  erected  the  magnificent  churches 
which  Lima  has  to-day,  and  which  made  the  capital  of  the 
New  World  the  most  luxurious  and  profligate  known  to 
history. 

Later,  the  marvellous  products  of  the  mines  of  Potosi  and 
Cerro  de  Pasco  added  to  the  fabulous  wealth  of  Peru.  In 
1661  La  Palata,  the  viceroy,  rode  from  the  palace  to  the  ca¬ 
thedral  on  a  horse  every  hair  of  whose  mane  and  tail  was 
strung  with  pearls,  whose  hoofs  were  shod  with  shoes  of 
solid  gold,  and  whose  path  was  paved  with  ingots  of  solid 
silver.  It  was  during  this  time  that  the  galleons  from  the 
East,  “  from  far  Cathay,”  laden  with  gems  and  silks  and  spices, 
Avent  to  Callao  to  exchange  them  for  the  products  of  I  otosi 
and  Pasco ;  while,  out  of  sight,  on  the  verge  of  the  horizon.  Sir 
Francis  Drake  and  the  bold  John  Hawkins  and  other  bucca¬ 
neers  lay-to  in  their  sAvift-sailing  cruisers  to  snatch  the  treas- 


GRAND  PLAZA, 


LIMA 


365 


ure-ships  as  they  came  around  the  island  of  San  Lorenzo,  and 
carry  home  the  booty  to  lay  it  at  the  feet  of  Elizabeth,  the 
virgin  queen  of  England. 

But  all  this  grandeur  is  gone,  and  the  last  traces  of  it  are 
now  to  be  found  in  the  pawn-shops  of  Lima,  which  are  full  of 
rare  old  silver,  paintings,  china,  and  lace.  The  people  are  so 
poor  that  they  are  compelled  to  sell  their  jewels  to  get  bread 
and  meat.  The  stagnation  of  business  has  deprived  them  of 
their  ordinary  incomes  from  real  estate,  and  the  war  has 
taken  off  the  laborers,  so  that  the  sugar  haciendas  and  the 
mills  are  idle.  I  met  people  whose  incomes  were  formerly 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars,  from  rentals  and  interest  on 
investments,  who  are  now  compelled  to  patronize  the  pawn¬ 
shops,  because  their  tenants  cannot  pay  rent  and  their  invest¬ 
ments  no  longer  produce  a  profit.  The  paper-money  of  the 
country  is  as  valueless  as  the  Confederate  bills  were  during  our 
civil  war.  One  issue,  the  Incas,  is  entirely  worthless.  The 
Government  tried  to  enforce  its  circulation  by  locking  up 
men  who  refused  to  accept  it  as  legal  tender;  but  the  mer¬ 
chants  marked  up  the  prices  of  their  goods,  and  charged  two 
thousand  dollars  a  yard  for  calico,  when  the  Treasury  sur¬ 
rendered,  and  issued  another  loan  which  is  almost  as  bad  as 
the  first.  You  give  a  twenty-dollar  bill  to  your  bootblack  and 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars  an  hour  for  a  hack.  It  costs 
about  six  hundred  dollars  a  day  for  board  at  the  hotel,  and 
fifty  dbllars  for  a  bunch  of  cigarettes. 

House-owners  who  have  leased  their  property  for  a  term  of 
years  without  specifying  in  what  sort  of  money  the  rent  shall 
be  paid  are  compelled  to  accept  this  worthless  paper  at  par. 
I  met  a  lady  whose  income  from  rents  ten  years  ago  was  more 
than  a  thousand  dollars  a  week  m  gold,  but  now  it  is  only  the 
same  amount  in  paper — scarcely  enough  to  pay  the  servants — 
and  she  is  selling  her  bric-a-brac  to  live.  The  haciendas  and 
farms  are  no  longer  tilled,  because  for  several  years  past  all 
the  laborers  have  been  pressed  into  the  army ;  and  the  sugar 
plantations  are  useless,  for  the  machinery  by  which  they  were 
operated  was  destroyed  by  the  Chilians  during  the  recent  war. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


366 


The  devastation  which  the  Chilian  army  created  was  almost 
equal  to  that  caused  by  Pizarro  when  he  invaded  the  homes 
of  the  peaceful  Incas.  The  lines  of  march  of  the  Chilians  are 


A  PERUVIAN  CHAMBER. 

shown  by  the  complete  destruction  of  everything  they  could 
break  down  or  burn.  Whole  cities,  villages,  farms,  factories, 
were  swept  away  by  a  malicious  desire  to  do  as  much  in¬ 
jury  as  possible,  regardless  of  the  rights  of  non-combatants. 


LIMA. 


367 


and  in  violation  of  all  the  laws  of  civilized  war.  The  beauti¬ 
ful  winter  resorts  of  Peru,  Milleflores  (its  Newport)  and  Cho- 
rillos  (its  Long  Branch),  the  residence -places  of  the  wealthy 
people  and  the  haunts  of  those  who  sought  rest — where  there 
were  palaces  as  beautiful  as  those  of  Paris,  and  parks  like  the 
legendary  gardens  of  Babylon — were  entirely  destroyed,  not 
by  accident,  but  by  dynamite  and  other  explosives.  Exqui¬ 
site  marble  statues  now  lie  in  fragments  upon  the  ground, 
artistic  fountains  were  shattered,  trees  were  girdled,  irrigating 
ditches  destroyed,  and  every  possible  vandalism  was  commit¬ 
ted,  not  only  on  the  property  of  Peruvians,  but  upon  that  of 
foreigners,  whose  claims  for  damages  will  amount  to  more 
than  Chili  can  ever  pay. 

The  magnificent  trees  in  the  parks,  along  the  boulevards, 
and  even  in  the  botanical  garden,  were  cut  down  for  fuel  by 
the  soldiers  of  Chili ;  the  entire  museum  of  Peruvian  curiosi¬ 
ties,  one  of  the  largest  and  finest  in  the  world,  was  packed  up 
and  shipped  to  Santiago ;  the  books  in  the  National  Library 
were  thrown  into  sacks  and  sent  after  the  museum,  and  his¬ 
torical  paintings  were  cut  from  their  frames  as  private  plun¬ 
der.  The  greatest  painting  of  Peru  —  Marini’s  “Burial  of 
Atahualpa,  the  last  of  the  Incas  ” — was  stolen  from  the  wall 
where  it  hung,  but  the  protests  of  the  diplomatic  corps  in¬ 
duced  the  Chilians  to  return  it.  The  churches  and  private 
houses  were  stripped  in  a  similar  manner,  and  what  could 
not  be  stolen  was  burned.  Nothing  was  sacred  in  the  eyes 
of  these  modern  vandals,  whose  purpose  was  to  deprive  the 
Peruvians  of  everything  they  prized. 

The  evidence  of  a  refined  taste  in  art  and  music  is  every¬ 
where  apparent  in  Peru.  There  is  scarcely  a  home  without  a 
piano,  and  the  city  of  Lima  once  rivalled  Madrid  in  its  treas¬ 
ures  of  art.  There  remain  but  two  notable  statues — that  of 
Columbus,  in  marble,  representing  him  in  the  act  of  handing 
a  crucifix  to  an  Indian  girl ;  and  that  of  Bolivar  the  Liber¬ 
ator,  upon  a  rearing  horse,  in  bronze  (like  the  statue  of  Jack- 
son  in  Washington),  which  stands  in  front  of  the  old  Inquisi¬ 
tion  building,  on  the  spot  where  heretics  were  burned  two 


368 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


INTERIOR  OF  A  LIMA  DWELLING. 


hundred  years  ago.  The  famous  arcli  over  the  old  bridge, 
which  was  erected  in  1610,  has  been  destroyed,  and  many 
other  artistic  ornaments  of  the  city  which  have  been  written 
of  again  and  again  are  gone. 

A  recent  President  occupied  the  former  residence  of  Henry 
\rejmTvi  the  Californian,  who  did  so  much  for  Peru.  It  is  a 
magnificent  structure,  erected  and  furnished  when  money 
had  no  value  to  the  owner ;  but.  like  everything  else  in 
Lima,  it  is  only  a  relic  of  its  original  beauty,  and  as  a  meas¬ 
ure  of  economy  a  corner  of  the  lower  floor  is  rented  for  a 
grocery. 

Those  who  have  travelled  everywhere  say  that  the  women 
of  Lima  are  the  most  beautiful  in  the  world.  There  is  some- 
thino-  about  the  climate  of  the  country,  where  rain  never  falls, 


LIMA. 


369 


and  where  decay  is  almost  unknown,  that  gives  them  a  brill¬ 
iancy  of  complexion  that  women  of  other  lands  do  not  pos¬ 
sess.  Perhaps  their  national  costume  does  much  to  heighten 
their  beauty,  for  any  woman  not  positively  ugly  would  look 
well  in  the  embroidered  manta  that  the  ladies  of  Lima  always 
wear.  This  manta  is  a  shawl  of  black  China  crape,  and  the 
amount  of  silk  embroidery  upon  it  indicates  the  wealth  of  the 
wearer.  Some  of  them  are  extremely  beautiful  and  cost  as 
much  as  five  hundred  dollars ;  but  ordinary  mantas,  such  as 
the  majority  wear,  can  be  bought  for  fifteen  or  twenty  dollars 
in  Peruvian  money,  which  is  worth  twenty-five  per  cent,  less 
than  American  gold.  A  very  common  article  of  dyed  cotton 


A  PERUVIAN  PALACE. 

is  imported  from  England  at  a  cost  of  three  or  four  dollars, 
for  the  use  of  the  negro  and  Indian  women.  The  manta  is 
worn  by  every  woman,  regardless  of  her  rank  or  wealth, 
whenever  she  appears  on  the  street;  but  in  their  homes,  at 
the  opera,  and  when  they  go  out  to  afternoon  receptions  or 
24 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


370 


A  PERUVIAN  BELLE. 


evening  balls,  the  ladies  adopt  the  Parisian  styles,  and  diess 
with  a  great  deal  of  taste. 

The  manta  is  square  in  shape  and  about  two  yards  in  size. 
It  is  folded  so  as  to  be  triangular,  and  the  centre  of  the  fold 

is  placed  upon  the 
forehead,  where  there 
is  usually  a  bit  of  lace 
that  hangs  down  to 
the  eyes.  One  end  of 
the  manta  falls  down 
the  front  of  the  dress 
as  far  as  the  knee, 
while  the  other  is 
thrown  around  the 
shoulders  and  fasten¬ 
ed  at  the  breast  with 
an  ornamental  pin. 
Thus,  usually  only  the 
face  is  shown ;  and 
when  a  maiden  or 
a  matron  wishes  to 
disguise  herself,  she 
draws  the  shawl  up 
so  as  to  cover  her 
'  mouth  and  nose,  and 
permit  only  her  great 
i hack,  roguish  eyes  to 
age  never  seems  to 

c? 


And  such  eves !  Always  large. 


be  seen.  __  . 

dim.  them,  and  no  degree  of  self-discipline  can  rob  them  of  01 

’subdue  their  coquettish  appearance.  The  poet  who  wrote 


“Of  that  dark  queen 

For  whose  mere  smile  a  world  was  bartered,” 

described  a  Lima  lady.  The  manta  is  usually  drawn  so  closely 
about  the  figure  as  to  show  its  outlines  with  the  most  con¬ 
spicuous  distinctness,  and  the  young  women  of  Lima  are  as 
famous  for  their  beauty  of  form  as  for  their  beaut}  of  face. 


LIMA. 


371 


maternity,  and  one  seldom  finds  a  married  woman  more  than 
thirty  or  thirty -five  years  of  age,  if  she  is  the  mother  of  chil¬ 
dren,  who  retains  the  statuesque  grace  of  maidenhood.  They 


They  are  always  slender,  generally  short  of  stature,  and  as 
graceful  as  sylphs ;  but  they  lose  their  beauty  of  figure  with 


WATCHING  THE  PROCESSION. 


372 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ripen  early,  reach  their  prime  at  sixteen  or  seventeen,  and  gen¬ 
erally  marry  at  that  age.  At  twenty-five  they  are  fat,  but 
they  never  lose  the  radiance  of  their  eyes  or  their  com¬ 
plexion.  Their  stoutness  comes  from  the  lack  of  exercise  and 
the  excessive  use  of  sweetmeats,  for  they  spend  their  fives  in 
rocking-chairs,  munching  clulces,  as  they  call  confectionery. 

There  is  a  romantic  story  about  the  manta  which  explains 
the  reason  that  it  is  always  black.  The  Peruvian  women 
never  wear  colors  in  the  street,  and  this  custom  is  observed  by 
the  aristocracy  as  well  as  by  the  peasantry;  nor  do  they  ever 
wear  bonnets  except  at  an  opera,  and  there  very  seldom. 
The  same  is  true  of  the  women  of  Ecuador  and  Chili,  although 
in  the  city  of  Valparaiso,  which  is  the  most  modern  in  its  cus¬ 
toms  and  in  the  style  of  living  of  any  place  on  the  west  coast, 
the  use  of  the  manta  is  gradually  dying  out,  and  it  is  worn 
only  at  church.  No  woman  with  a  bonnet  on  will  be  admit¬ 
ted  to  any  Catholic  church  on  the  west  coast.  Sometimes 
strangers  wear  them  in,  but  the  sextons  and  ushers  invaria¬ 
bly  ask  that  they  lie  removed.  Mrs.  Admiral  Daldgren,  of 
Washington,  in  her  book  called  “South  Sea  Sketches,”  relates 
that  she  was  ordered  out  of  a  church  because  she  was  wearing 
a  bonnet,  and  misunderstanding  what  was  said  to  her,  took 
no  notice  of  the  command  until  quite  a  commotion  was  raised, 
when  some  lady  explained  its  cause.  A  bonnet  is  called  a 
(/arm  in  Spanish,  and  Mrs.  Daldgren  was  very  much  amused 
at  its  similarity  to  the  familiar  Irish  ejaculation. 

It  is  said  that  the  custom  of  wearing  the  manta  originated 
among  the  Incas,  but  that  they  wore  colore  until  the  assas¬ 
sination  of  Atalmalpa,  their  king,  by  the  Spaniards  under 
Pizarro.  Then  every  woman  in  the  great  empire,  which 
stretched  from  the  Isthmus  of  Panama  to  the  Strait  of  Ma¬ 
gellan,  abandoned  colors  and  put  on  a  black  manta,  and  it  has 
since  been  worn  as  perpetual  mourning  for  “the  last  of  the 
Incas.”  There  is  probably  some  truth  in  this  story,  for  in 
the  graves  of  the  Incas  that  have  been  destroyed  by  scientific 
resurrectionists,  have  been  found  female  mummies  with  man¬ 
tas  of  brilliant  colors  wrapped  around  them,  and  fastened 


LIMA. 


373 


with  pins  very  much  like  those  worn  at  the  present  day.  It 
is  also  true  that  the  natives,  the  peons  of  Peru  and  Ecuador, 
the  descendants  of  the  Incas,  never  wear  anything  except 


THE  DAUGHTEB  OF  THE  INCAS. 


black,  and  still  celebrate  with  impressive  and  appropriate  cer¬ 
emonies  the  anniversary  of  the  day  on  which  Atahualpa  was 
strangled.  In  Chili  the  custom  has  died  out,  for  the  Inca  em¬ 
pire  was  never  able  to  sustain  itself  there  against  the  savage 
24* 


374 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Araucanian  tribes  of  Indians  who  inhabited  the  southern 
range  of  the  Andes. 

The  Inca  women  in  Peru  and  Ecuador  are  not  at  all  pretty. 
They  are  dwarfish  in  stature,  broad  across  the  shoulders,  and 
resemble  in  feature  the  squaws  of  the  North  American  tribes, 
except  that  they  have  the  almond-shaped  eyes  of  the  Mongo¬ 
lians  ;  and  it  is  probably  true,  as  urged  by  the  antiquarians, 
that  the  Incas  were  of  the  same  origin  as  the  Chinese,  for 
their  customs,  their  adeptness  at  all  sorts  of  ingenious  work, 
and  their  manner  of  living  bear  a  striking  resemblance  to 
those  of  the  interior  provinces  of  the  Chinese  empire.  The 
Incas  have  had  their  blood  diluted  bv  intermarriage  with  the 
lower  grades  of  the  Spanish  race,  and  it  is  very  difficult  to 
find  pure  natives  now.  The  people  of  the  mixed  race  are 
called  oholos. 

It  is  the  transplanted  Spanish  rose,  the  pure  Castilian  type, 
that  blooms  with  the  greatest  beauty  in  the  gardens  of  Peru. 
The  climate  has  refined  it.  and  has  clarified  the  dark  olive  tint 
that  is  found  in  Castile.  The  greatest  beauties  in  Lima  are 
the  descendants  of  the  oldest  families — those  of  the  longest 
residence  in  the  country — and  their  loveliness  appeal’s  not 
only  to  have  been  transmitted  from  generation  to  generation, 
but  to  have  been  enhanced  thereby.  This  is  true  not  alone 
of  the  aristocrats,  for  some  of  the  loveliest  girls  belong  to 
the  humbler  families,  and  are  found  in  the  tenement-houses, 
clothed  in  the  shabbiest  garments,  which  serve  only  to  height¬ 
en  their  loveliness,  and  to  make  them  fair  prey  for  the  wolves 
that  prowl  around  in  Lima  as  they  do  everywhere  else.  The 
fate  of  these  girls,  if  described,  would  make  a  chapter  more 
horrible  to  contemplate  than  the  disclosures  recently  made  in 
London.  Their  beauty  is  a  fatal  gift,  and  their  poverty  and 
ignorance  make  them  an  easy  prey  to  the  tempter.  Seldom 
are  they  allowed  to  remain  at  home  after  the  age  of  fourteen 
or  fifteen,  when  they  become  the  mistresses  of  the  haughty 
dons.  But  the  social  laws  of  Spanish  America  are  so  lib¬ 
eral  that  these  women  are  treated  much  better  than  in  lands 
of  higher  civilization,  for  it  is  not  only  expected  that  every 


RUINS  OF  THE  WAR. 


LIMA. 


377 


man  who  can  support  a  mistress  will  do  so,  but  his  reputation 
will  suffer  among  his  fellows  if  he  does  not. 

Just  now  the  country  is  prostrated,  the  effect  of  a  long 
series  of  wars  during  which  it  was  robbed  of  everything  that 
the  army  of  Chili  could  carry  away ;  so  that  there  is  very 
little  gayety  and  not  much  display  of  dress.  But  the  people 
retain  the  relics  of  their  former  prosperity,  and  the  ladies 
of  the  present  generation  have  inherited  the  treasures  their 
mothers  bought  and  wore  at  the  time  when  money  was  so 
plenty.  Much  of  this  finery — the  jewels  and  laces  —  has 
gone  to  the  pawnbrokers,  and  many  of  the  most  aristo¬ 
cratic  families  in  the  republic  are  now  living  upon  its  pro¬ 
ceeds.  The  women  are,  like  the  French,  very  skilful  in 
dress-making,  and  everything  they  wear  is  becoming.  They 
imitate  the  Parisian  styles  with  the  greatest  ingenuity,  and 
have  remarkable  taste  in  making  over  old  clothes. 

The  pawnshops  are  full  of  beautiful  things.  Here  are  toilet 
sets  of  solid  silver,  beautifully  chased,  including  the  meaner 
vessels  of  the  bedroom,  which  betoken  the  luxury  and  extrav¬ 
agance  of  an  age  when  the  mines  of  the  Andes  were  pouring 
out  silver,  and  the  guano-beds  of  the  sea  were  being  turned 
into  gold.  Similar  reminiscences  of  ancient  glory  can  be  seen 
to-day  in  the  toilets  of  the  ladies,  in  the  heirlooms  which  they 
wear  on  their  wrists,  on  their  breasts,  and  in  their  ears,  as  well 
as  in  the  rich,  old-fashioned  fabrics  which  their  grandmothers 
wore  before  them,  made  in  the  days  when  people  did  not 
intend  things  to  wear  out. 

It  is  very  difficult  to  secure  admission  to  the  aristocratic 
circles  of  Peru.  They  are  as  exclusive  as  any  such  circle  in 
the  world,  and  social  laws  are  rigid.  But  an  American  who 
goes  to  Lima  with  good  letters  of  introduction  will  be  received 
with  cordial  hospitality,  and  be  admitted  to  circles  which  the 
resident,  however  rich  and  respectable,  can  never  enter.  Amer¬ 
ican  naval  officers  are  especially  welcome,  and  the  Peruvian 
belles  are  as  strongly  attracted  by  the  glitter  of  brass  buttons 
as  are  their  sisters  in  the  United  States.  Since  the  war  there 
have  been  few  public  balls  and  few  receptions,  as  the  people 


378' 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


are  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  with  little  hope  to  brighten 
the  commercial  horizon ;  but  when  you  bring  a  letter  to  a 
Peruvian  gentleman,  his  house  and  all  his  belongings  “  are 
at  your  disposition,  senor,”  and  he  is  oliended  unless  you 
accept  his  hospitality,  although  you  may  be  aware  that 


he  has  to  pawn  some  heirloom  to  pay  for  the  dinner  he 

gives  you.  „ 

The  ancient  social  restrictions  which  make  it  a  breach  ot 
decorum  for  a  gentleman  to  meet  a  lady  alone  until  after  mar¬ 
riage,  still  exist  in  Peru.  If  you  call  at  the  residence  of 
Senor  Bustamente  you  must  ask  for  him,  and  if  he  is  not  at 
home  you  may  leave  your  compliments  for  the  ladies  of  the 
family,  but  under  no  circumstances  ask  to  see  them.  If  he  is 


INTERIOR  OF  THE  ORDINARY  SORT  OF  HOUSE. 


LIMA. 


379 


appear  one  by  one,  A  very  common  spectacle. 

for  they  always  stop 

to  dress.  No  Spanish- American  lady  is  ever  ready  to  receive 


at  home 
your  welcome  will  be 
cordial,  and  you  will 
be  asked  to  a  seat 
upon  the  sofa,  which 
is  always  reserved  for 
guests,  and  is  the 
place  of  honor.  You 
will  be  entertained  by 
him  until  the  ladies 


380 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


a  caller.  The  lady  of  the  house  and  her  daughters  will  chat 
with  you  about  the  opera  and  the  bull-fight  and  the  latest 
scandal,  and  will  perform  brilliantly  upon  the  piano,  but  be¬ 
yond  that  her  powers  of  entertainment  do  not  go.  If  you 
can  get  Senorita  Dolores  over  in  the  corner — and  she  will  be 
delighted  with  a  tete-a-tete — you  will  find  that  she  knows  noth¬ 
ing  whatever  about  the  world  beyond  her  own  limited  circle 
of  acquaintance.  She  has  not  the  vaguest  idea  of  the  United 
States,  and  does  not  know  whether  Paris  is  in  America,  or 
New  York  in  England.  She  will  look  at  you  with  her  great 
eyes  with  the  most  childish  innocence,  and  ask  if  the  bull¬ 
fights  in  New  York  are  as  exciting  as  those  of  Lima,  and  if 
there  is  as  agile  a  picador  in  the  States  as  Senor  Rubio.  When 
you  tell  her  that  bull-fighting  is  not  recognized  as  a  legitimate 
amusement  in  New  York,  she  will  exclaim  “  Santa  Maria !” 
and  ask  what  entertainment  you  have  when  the  opera-house 
is  closed.  Then,  when  you  say  that  eight  or  ten  theatres  are 
always  open,  she  will  cry  out  to  papa  across  the  room  to  take 
her  to  New  York  by  the  next  steamer. 

The  senorita  got  her  education  at  a  convent,  has  learned  to 
embroider,  to  play  the  piano,  to  dance,  and  has  committed  to 
memory  the  lives  of  the  saints ;  and  there  her  accomplish¬ 
ments  end.  She  is  so  beautiful  that  you  are  sorry  you  ex¬ 
plored  her  mind  ;  you  feel  guilty  of  having  exposed  her  igno¬ 
rance  ;  you  wish  that  you  could  simply  sit  and  look  at  her,  a 
picture  of  loveliness,  forever ;  but  when  you  ask  her  to  dance, 
and  she  moves  away  with  you  in  a  waltz  or  mazourka,  you  dis¬ 
cover  that  however  empty  her  head  may  be,  the  education  of 
her  feet  has  not  been  neglected.  No  one  who  has  ever  waltzed 
with  a  Peruvian  girl  will  wish  for  another  partner.  She  is 
simply  animated  gracefulness,  and  her  endurance  is  remarka¬ 
ble.  She  clings  a  little  closer  than  our  girls  would  consider 
consistent  with  propriety,  and  dances  with  an  abandon  that 
would  call  out  a  remonstrance  from  a  watchful  mamma  in 
the  States.  She  gives  her  whole  mind  and  soul  to  it,  regard¬ 
less  of  consequences,  and  sighs  when  the  music  ceases,  as  if 
there  were  nothing  more  in  fife  to  enjoy. 


381 


LIMA. 


The  air  and  light  of  Lima  are  very  favorable  for  photogra¬ 
phy,  and  the  city  has  galleries  as  fine  as  any  in  New  York. 
The  reception-rooms,  corridors,  show-windows,  and  even  the 
ceilings,  are  lined  with  portraits  of  belles  of  the  town,  which 
are  on  sale  not  only  there  but  at  the  news-stands  and  print- 
shops.  In  Havana  and  Venezuela,  to  have  the  photograph  of 


A  PERUVIAN  MILK-PEDDLER. 


a  young  lady  is  equivalent  to  the  announcement  of  an  engage¬ 
ment,  hut  in  Peru  it  signifies  nothing.  You  can  buy  the  por¬ 
traits  of  your  neighbors’  daughters  anywhere  in  town,  and 
their  popularity  is  estimated  by  the  number  sold.  Lima  girls, 
with  their  great  black  eyes  and  shapely  figures,  make  fine 
subjects  for  a  photographer,  and  strangers  usually  take  home 


382 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


collections  of  the  pictures  of  beauties.  The  photograph  deal¬ 
ers  have  their  portraits  put  up  in  covers  ready  for  the  market, 
like  views  of  Niagara  Falls  or  Coney  Island. 

Milk  is  peddled  about  Lima  by  women,  who  sit  astride  a 
horse  or  a  mule,  with  a  big  can  hanging  on  either  side  of  the 
saddle.  When  they  ride  up  to  a  door-way  they  give  a  pecul¬ 
iar  shrill  scream,  which  the  servants  within  recognize. 

Most  of  the  embroidery  and  other  similar  work  in  Lima  is 
done  by  the  nuns,  who  are  very  expert  at  it.  They  make  the 
finest  sort  of  lace,  embroider  towels,  napkins,  handkerchiefs, 
and  skirt-fronts  for  dresses  on  silk  and  velvet.  At  some  of 
the  shops  you  can  buy  dress  patterns  ;  that  is,  skirt  -  fronts, 
sleeves,  collar,  cuffs,  belt,  etc.,  embroidered  in  the  finest  pos¬ 
sible  style,  and  ready  to  make  up.  It  is  one  of  the  ancient 
customs  handed  down  from  the  days  of  the  viceroys.  The 
nuns  make  most  of  the  confectionery  sold  in  the  city,  mould¬ 
ing  the  unrefined  sugar  into  artistic  shapes,  coloring  it  to  imi¬ 
tate  nature,  and  flavoring  it  to  suit  the  palate. 

The  fashionable  entertainment  in  Peru  is  bull-baiting.  The 
bull  is  not  killed,  as  in  Spain  and  Mexico  and  other  countries, 
and  no  horses  are  slaughtered  in  the  ring.  The  animal  is 
simply  teased  and  tortured  to  make  a  Liman  holiday.  The 
young  men  of  the  city  do  the  baiting,  and  it  is  regarded 
as  a  very  high-toned  sort  of  athletic  sport,  like  polo  at  New¬ 
port.  The  young  ladies  take  darts  made  of  tin,  decorate 
them  with  ribboned  lace  and  rosettes,  and  give  them  to 
their  lovers  to  stick  into  the  hide  of  the  bull.  The  great 
feat  is  to  cast  these  darts  so  as  to  strike  the  bull  in  the 
fore -shoulder  or  in  the  face,  and  in  order  to  do -it  he  who 
throws  them  must  stand  before  the  animal's  horns.  Active 
young  fellows  perform  very  dexterously,  but  it  takes  nerve 
and  aoilitv,  and  at  times  fair  senoritas  have  seen  their  lovers 
badly  gored. 

Another  form  of  entertainment  is  what  is  called  Buena 
Noche ,  or  “  Good  Night.”  Then  the  band  plays  in  the  princi¬ 
pal  plaza,  fireworks  are  exploded  at  the  expense  of  the  shop¬ 
keepers  and  saloon -men,  whose  profits  are  increased,  huck- 


mindless  of  care. 


LIMA. 


385 


sters  surround  the  place  with  tables,  selling  cakes,  candies, 
ice-cream,  and  peanuts,  and  all  the  populace  come  out  to  gossip 
and  flirt.  These  festivals  furnish  about  the  only  opportunity 
for  Vitkins  to  get  a  word  alone  with  his  Dinah,  for  on  a 
“Buena  Noche ”  he  can  offer  her  his  arm,  and  promenade  up 
and  down  the  plaza,  murmuring  soft  nothings  in  her  ear  as 
long  as  she  will  hear  them,  or  until  the  great  bell  of  San 
Pedro  strikes  midnight,  when  there  are  a  hustle  and  a  bustle, 
and  everybody  goes  home. 

Some  of  the  largest  and  finest  stores  in  Lima  are  owned  and 
managed  by  Chinese  merchants,  who  have  the  monopoly  of  the 
trade  in  mantas  and  silk  dress-goods.  Italians  usually  keep 
the  bodegas  and  eating-houses.  There  are  half  a  dozen  large 
American  mercantile  establishments,  and  the  house  of  Grace 
Brothers,  of  which  Mr.  William  R.  Grace,  ex-mayor  of  New 
York,  is  the  head,  practically  monopolizes  the  foreign  trade  of 
Peru.  Much  of  the  business  in  the  interior  is  done  by  itiner¬ 
ant  peddlers,  who  carry  their  wares  on  their  backs,  and  tramp 
over  the  whole  continent  from  the  Isthmus  to  Patagonia. 
There  is  also  a  class  of  itinerant  doctors  of  Indian  blood, 
called  callavayas ,  who  travel  on  foot  from  Bogota,  in  Colom¬ 
bia,  to  Buenos  Ayres,  carrjdng  the  news  from  place  to  place, 
and  practising  a  sort  of  voodoo  system  over  the  sick.  They 
are  well  known  throughout  the  country,  and  exercise  a  re¬ 
markable  influence  among  the  natives,  who  entertain  them  as 
guests  of  distinction  wherever  they  go. 

All  the  benevolent  institutions  of  Lima  are  supported  by  a 
“  Sociedad  de  Beneficencia,”  an  organization  of  citizens  who 
raise  money  by  private  subscriptions,  and  by  bull-fights,  cock¬ 
fights,  and  lotteries.  The  Penitentiary  is  a  noble  building, 
erected  on  the  plan  of  the  Philadelphia  House  of  Correction, 
by  a  Philadelphia  architect,  the  prisoners  in  which  are  engaged 
in  making  uniforms,  shoes,  and  other  equipments  for  the  army. 
Capital  punishment  is  abolished  in  Peru,  but  political  offend¬ 
ers  are  tried  by  military  courts,  and  shot  when  found  guilty 
of  conspiracy  or  treason.  There  are  in  the  prison  one  hundred 
and  thirty-five  unhanged  murderers  serving  out  life  sentences. 

25 


386 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


There  are  four  daily  newspapers  in  Lima,  in  which  are  pub¬ 
lished  cablegrams  from  all  parts  of  the  world.  They  are  edited 
with  ability,  but  their  writers  indulge  in  the  grandiose,  florid 
style  that  sounds  very  funny  to  the  plain-spoken  American. 
One  of  the  editors  was  sent  to  jail  and  fined  five  hundred  dol¬ 
lars,  besides  having  his  paper  suppressed,  for  making  some 
reflections  upon  the  acts  of  Congress ;  but  as  soon  as  he  got 
out  of  prison  he  started  another  paper,  and  he  is  now  blazing 
away  in  the  most  fearless  manner,  just  as  if  the  penitentiary 
were  not  half  empty  and  the  Government  in  need  of  convict 
labor.  The  papers  make  their  appearance  on  the  street  about 
ten  o’clock  at  night,  and  are  cried  by  newsboys,  who  make  as 
much  racket  as  our  own.  In  the  morning  carriers  deliver 
copies  to  regular  subscribers.  Advertising  patronage  seems 
to  be  pretty  good  in  Lima,  for  the  newspapers  have  about 
two  pages  of  display  “  ads.  ”  to  every  one  of  reading  mat¬ 
ter  ;  but  they  do  not  get  good  rates,  and  times  are  so  hard 
that  the  merchants  give  very  little  cash,  but  require  the 
editors  to  “  trade  it  out  ”  in  the  country  fashion.  Advertis¬ 
ing  is  always  an  index  to  commerce,  and  the  condition  of 
Peru  is  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  almost  every  merchant 
in  Lima  is  selling  out  at  cost — gran  realization ,  they  call  it. 
Credit  is  not  given  at  the  stores  except  to  the  Government, 
and  that  is  compulsory.  The  foreign  merchants  will  not  sell 
to  the  authorities  except  for  cash,  and  the  native  merchants 
do  not  want  to,  for  only  in  one  instance  in  a  hundred  are 
they  ever  paid. 

All  the  houses  in  Lima  are  built  on  the  earthquake  plan — 
either  of  great  thick  walls  of  adobe,  or  mere  shacks  of  bam¬ 
boo  reeds,  lashed  together  by  thongs  of  rawhide,  and  plastered 
within  and  without  with  thick  layers  of  mud.  This  style  of 
architecture  will  answer  in  a  country  where  it  never  rains,  and 
where  cyclones  never  come,  but  if  a  good  pour  should  fall  in 
Lima,  much  of  the  town  would  be  washed  into  the  river 
Kimac  and  carried  out  to  sea.  There  is  never  more  than  one 
entrance  to  a  house,  and  that  is  protected  first  by  a  great 
iron  grating,  and  then  by  solid  doors.  The  windows  are  cov- 


LIMA. 


387 


erecl  with  bars.  This  was  clone  as  a  precaution  against  ban¬ 
dits  in  early  times,  and  against  revolutionists  in  later  days ; 
and.  a  very  essential  precaution  it  has  been,  for  during  the 
time  of  the  viceroy  bands  of  robbers  came  down  from  the 
mountains,  and  hordes  of  pirates  from  the  sea.  Through  the 
single  entrance  passes  every  one  who  comes  and  goes  —  the 
butcher,  the  baker,  the  priest  who  comes  to  shrive  the  dying, 
and  the  young  man  to  whom  Mercedes  is  engaged. 

The  roofs  of  the  dwellings  are  always  perfectly  flat,  and 
among  the  common  people  are  used  as  barn-yards  and  hen¬ 
neries.  In  many  cases  a  cow  spends  all  her  days  on  the  roof 
of  her  owner’s  residence,  being  taken  up  when  a  calf,  and 
taken  down  at  the  end  of  life  as  fresh  beef.  In  the  mean 
time  she  is  fed  on  alfalfa,  and  the  slops  from  the  kitchen. 
Chicken-coops  are  still  more  common  on  the  roofs  of  dwell¬ 
ings,  and  in  the  thickly  populated  portions  of  the  town  your 
neighbors’  cocks  waken  you  at  daylight  with  reminders  of 
St.  Peter. 

Lima  is  a  poor  place  to  sell  umbrellas,  for  along  the  coast 
from  the  northern  boundary  of  Peru,  far  south-west  to  the 
end  of  the  Chilian  desert,  rain  never  falls.  There  is  a  disa¬ 
greeable,  dismal,  sticky,  rheumatic  dew,  however,  which  is 
worse  than  a  shower ;  for  during  the  winter  season,  beginning 
in  April  and  ending  in  October,  it  penetrates  the  thickest 
clothing,  and  gives  one  the  sensation  described  by  Mantilini 
as  “  demnition  moist.”  The  thermometer  is  pretty  regular, 
however,  and  ranges  from  sixty  to  eighty  degrees  Fahren¬ 
heit  during  the  year,  January  being  the  hottest  month,  and 
July  the  coolest.  Pulmonary  complaints  are  unknown,  but 
fevers  are  very  common,  and  the  mortality  among  infants  is 
pitiable.  At  Callao  yellow  -fever  is  usually  endemic,  and  there 
are  three  or  four  deaths  every  week  among  the  marine  popu¬ 
lation,  as  the  sanitary  regulations  are  not  well  enforced,  and 
the  city  is  dirty. 

The  chamber  occupied  by  the  Peruvian  House  of  Deputies 
is  a  long,  narrow  apartment  in  what  was  formerly  the  Uni¬ 
versity  of  St.  Mark,  the  oldest  institution  of  learning  in  Amer- 


388 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ica,  having  been  founded  in  1551,  and  confiscated  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  from  the  Church  in  1869.  The  spectators  sit  in  a 
very  high,  narrow  gallery  over  the  heads  of  the  representa¬ 
tives,  who  are  arranged  in  two  rows  of  chairs,  without  desks, 
around  the  three  walls  of  the  chamber,  the  presiding  officer 
and  clerks  having  the  fourth  wall  at  their  back.  The  centre 
of  the  room  is  occupied  by  a  long  table,  at  one  end  of  which 
sits  the  presiding  officer,  who  is  a  priest  (with  an  appearance 
of  having  lived  on  the  fat  of  the  land),  and  at  the  other  end  a 
crucifix  is  placed,  upon  which  the  members  of  Congress  are 
sworn  to  support  the  Constitution.  When  a  formal  speech  is 
made,  the  orator  stands  upon  a  platform,  with  a  desk  or  table 
before  him,  and  a  running  debate  is  participated  in  by  mem¬ 
bers  from  their  chairs. 

The  Senate  Chamber  is  in  the  old  Inquisition  building,  just 
across  the  Plaza  de  Bolivar,  in  which  one  hundred  heretics 
are  said  to  have  been  burned  to  death,  and  thousands  pub¬ 
licly  scourged. 

The  people  of  Peru  entertain  the  most  cordial  sentiments 
towards  the  United  States,  which  is  the  more  remarkable  be¬ 
cause  of  the  feeling  prevalent  in  all  classes  that  the  adminis¬ 
tration  of  President  Garfield  was  the  cause  of  many  of  the 
losses  and  much  of  the  misery  which  they  suffered  during 
the  war  with  Chili.  They  cannot  be  convinced  that  they 
were  not  trifled  with  and  betrayed  at  the  most  critical  peri¬ 
od  of  their  history,  and  that  Mr.  Blaine  was  not  responsible. 
Without  entering  into  the  controversy  as  to  whether  Mr. 
Blaine  authorized  General  Hurlbut  to  interfere,  or  whether 
General  Hurlbut’s  action  was  voluntary,  it  is  nevertheless  true 
that  the  moment  he  stepped  in  Chili  held  back,  and  the  mo¬ 
ment  he  withdrew  she  renewed  the  devastation  of  her  sister 
republic  with  a  hundred  -  fold  more  energy  than  before.  If 
our  Government  had  taken  the  same  stand  in  the  war  between 
Chili  and  Peru  that  she  occupied  regarding  the  troubles  in  the 
Central  American  States,  thousands  of  lives,  property  worth 
millions  of  dollars,  and  the  richest  resources  of  Peru  might 
have  been  saved.  Mr.  Blaiue’s  original  attitude  was  that  the 


VIEW  OF  CUZCO  AND  THE  NEVADO  OF  ASUNGATA  FROM  THE  BROW  OF  THE  SACSAHUAMAN. 


LIMA. 


391 


United  States  would  not  tolerate  the  dismemberment  of  Peru, 
and  that  was  clearly  and  plainly  announced,  with  a  whole¬ 
some  effect.  All  at  once  the  protest  was  withdrawn,  without 
warning,  without  any  premonition,  and  then,  with  a  knife  at 
her  throat  and  a  revolver  at  her  heart,  Peru  consented  to 
surrender  the  coveted  provinces. 

General  Hurlbut  had  been  condemned  for  acting  impru¬ 
dently,  for  getting  our  Government  into  a  scrape  without 
excuse,  for  committing  it  to  a  policy  that  was  not  tenable ; 
but  no  one  can  visit  Peru  and  see  the  results  of  the  war  with¬ 
out  respecting  the  memory  of  General  Hurlbut.  He  acted 
from  the  noblest  impulses,  in  behalf  of  humanity,  in  defence 
of  civilization.  Whether  he  tried  to  put  a  stop  to  the  war 
with  or  without  authority,  he  was  justified  in  doing  so — jus¬ 
tified  in  trying  to  prevent  the  burning  of  defenceless  cities, 
the  murder  of  non-combatants,  the  robbery  of  homes,  and  the 
despoliation  of  everything  that  was  sacred. 

Peru  was  overcome,  conquered,  and  resistless.  Her  army 
was  destroyed,  and  her  citizens,  who  had  attempted  to  defend 
her  capital  with  what  weapons  they  could  gather,  were  smit¬ 
ten  down  like  grass  before  the  scythe.  There  was  scarcely 
a  voice  to  be  raised  in  defence  of  the  women  and  children. 
Then  the  pillage  commenced.  Dynamite  and  petroleum  were 
the  weapons  of  Chili,  and  millions  of  dollars’  worth  of  private 
property  was  swept  away  daily,  until  the  Chilians  got  tired 
of  murder,  of  rapine,  of  pillage  and  devastation.  It  was  these 
which  General  Hurlbut  tried  to  prevent,  and  had  our  Gov¬ 
ernment  supported  him,  or  at  least  had  not  interfered,  he 
would  have  been  successful.  As  it  is,  the  Chilians  laugh  and 
the  Peruvians  mutter  curses,  when  “  the  foreign  policy  of  the 
United  States”  is  mentioned.  It  is  said  that  Hurlbut  exceeded 
his  instructions,  and  much  of  the  blame  of  failure  was  thrown 
upon  him.  He  was  a  proud  and  sensitive  man,  and  felt  cen¬ 
sure  keenly.  His  disgrace,  and  the  neglect  of  his  Govern¬ 
ment  to  sustain  him  in  the  attitude  he  had  taken,  not  only 
shortened  but  ended  his  life,  and  he  died  in  Lima  a  broken¬ 
hearted  man.  But  he  has  been  canonized  by  the  people  of 


392 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Peru  as  a  political  saint,  and  they  worship  his  memory  as 
they  do  that  of  Bolivar — the  Washington  of  South  America, 
the  man  who  gave  liberty  to  five  republics.  They  regard 
Ilurlbut  as  the  noblest  of  all  Americans.  Ilis  portrait  hangs 
in  their  parlors,  and  is  still  for  sale  at  the  photograph  gal¬ 
leries  and  picture  stores.  Ilis  funeral  was  attended  by  the 
greatest  demonstration  Peru  has  ever  witnessed,  and  the  grate¬ 
ful  people  would  erect  a  statue  to  him  if  they  had  money 
enough  left  to  pay  the  expense. 

When  Chili  conquered  Peru,  Admiral  Lynch,  the  Irishman 
who  commanded  the  Chilian  army,  set  up  General  Iglesias  as 
c*  provisional  President  until  the  pacification  of  the  country.” 
General  Caceres,  who  commanded  a  division  of  montailes,  or 
mountaineers,  refused  to  surrender,  and  rejected  the  terms  of 
peace  dictated  by  Chili.  He  retired  to  the  Andes,  and  car¬ 
ried  on  a  guerilla  warfare  as  long  as  the  Chilian  army  was  in 
Peru.  When  Lynch  and  his  legions  retired,  Caceres  turned 
his  attention  to  the  government  with  the  alliterative  title 
which  the  Chilians  left  in  Lima,  and  for  three  years  kept 
Iglesias  busy  defending  the  coast  and  the  capital  from  his 
assaults.  Business  was  almost  entirely  suspended;  commerce 
was  stagnant,  because  Peruvians  were  producing  nothing,  and 
had  no  money  to  pay  for  imported  goods.  The  people  lived 
on  the  pawn-shops,  and  the  Government,  deprived  of  its  rev¬ 
enues,  resorted  to  extreme  conscription  and  confiscation  meas¬ 
ures.  Caceres  hovered  around  Lima  for  three  years  with  his 
army  of  Indian  guerillas,  doing  little  fighting,  but  producing 
terror  everywhere.  Iglesias  had  no  force  to  suppress  his 
rival,  and  could  only  defend  the  capital  and  chief  seaports 
against  attack. 

In  the  centre  of  Lima,  as  in  all  Spanish- American  towns,  is 
a  plaza,  or  public  square,  with  a  fountain  and  statuary  in  the 
centre,  and  the  palace,  the  cathedral,  the  archbishop’s  resi¬ 
dence,  the  municipal  offices,  and  other  public  institutions 
facing  it  on  the  four  sides.  Into  this  plaza,  the  very  heart  of 
the  city,  in  August,  1885,  the  Government  troops  permitted 
Caceres  and  his  mountaineers  to  come;  but  they  had  suffi- 


BETWEEN  BATTLES,  BALLS. 


LIMA. 


395 


cient  notice  of  his  approach  to  enable  them  to  place  sharp¬ 
shooters  in  the  towers  of  the  churches,  cannon  on  the  roof  of 
the  palace,  and  musketeers  on  the  roofs  of  all  the  buildings 
around  it.  The  buildings  are  two  stories  high,  with  the  front 
walls  reaching  two  or  three  feet  above  the  roof,  so  that  those 
who  participated  in  this  novel  defence  of  the  city  had  good 
breastworks  to  protect  them.  When  Caceres  came  into  the 
plaza  he  was  met  with  volleys  from  all  sides,  and  the  pavements 
were  strewn  with  the  dead.  He  made  a  desperate  struggle, 
but  his  Indians,  few  of  whom  had  ever  been  in  a  city  before, 
and  none  of  whom  had  ever  been  under  fire,  scattered  and 
were  lost  in  the  labyrinth  of  narrow  streets,  where  they  were 
pursued  and  killed  by  cavalrymen,  who  plunged  out  of  the 
palace  at  full  gallop  when  it  was  seen  that  the  forces  of 
Caceres  were  wavering.  Of  the  three  thousand  men  who 
came  with  the  mountain  general,  two  thousand  lay  dead  or 
wounded  upon  the  pavements  of  Lima  before  the  battle  was 
two  hours  old,  and  with  the  rest,  who  were  called  together 
by  trumpeters,  Caceres  retired  to  Arequipa  to  prepare  for 
another  campaign. 

On  the  last  day  of  December,  1885,  he  repeated  the  attack 
with  better  success,  and  captured  the  city,  ending  a  seven 
years’  war  in  Peru.  A  provisional  government  was  organ¬ 
ized  until  April,  when  Caceres  was  elected  constitutional 
President,  and  has  since,  in  a  thorough,  wise,  and  patriotic 
way,  been  trying  to  restore  a  crushed  and  devastated  nation. 

General  Andres  Caceres,  the  successful  leader,  the  chosen 
President  of  Peru  for  a  term  ending  April,  1890,  is  a  man 
about  fifty  years  of  age,  a  native  of  the  ancient  town  of  Aya- 
cucho,  and  the  son  of  a  colonel  of  the  army  of  Chili.  His 
mother  was  a  Peruvian,  and  his  father  spent  the  later  years 
of  his  life  in  Peru.  The  mother  had  Indian  blood  in  her 
veins,  and  from  her  Caceres  has  inherited  much  of  the  Indian 
disposition  and  character  which  have  given  him  his  popularity 
among  the  montanes  who  followed  his  standard  in  the  strug¬ 
gle.  At  an  early  age  Caceres  entered  the  army,  and  having 
by  his  daring  energy  and  military  skill  won  the  confidence 


3'JG 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  admiration  of  President  Castilla,  was  sent  to  Europe  to 
learn  the  ai't  of  war  in  the  French  and  German  military 
schools.  Upon  his  return  he  was  detailed  for  duty  as  an  en¬ 
gineer,  but  when  the  war  with  Chili  broke  out  he  was  made 
a  general  of  division,  and  was  perhaps  the  most  successful 
officer  in  the  Peruvian  army. 

Don  Miguel  Iglesias,  the  head  of  the  government  which 
Caceres  tried  so  long  to  overthrow,  is  a  descendant  of  one  of 
the  oldest  and  most  aristocratic  families  of  Peru,  and  before 
the  war  with  Chili  he  occupied  several  posts  of  eminence  and 
honor,  having  been  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  afterwards 
Secretary  of  War.  lie  is  a  plantador ,  or  planter,  and  lives 
at  the  old  town  of  Caxamarca,  which  the  readers  of  Prescott’s 
story  of  the  Conquest  will  remember  as  the  seat  of  Atahualpa. 
During  the  war  with  Chili  General  Iglesias  also  took  a  promi¬ 
nent  part,  but  was  not  considered  a  successful  military  leader, 
having  no  taste  or  inclination  in  that  direction.  After  the 
downfall  of  the  Calderon  government  Iglesias  was  made  pro¬ 
visional  President,  and  continued  to  exercise  power  for  four 
years,  but  lacked  the  energy  and  ability  necessary  to  meet  the 
crisis ;  and  although  the  people  generally  regarded  him  as  an 
honest  and  patriotic  man,  he  lost  their  confidence,  and  the  vic¬ 
tory  of  Caceres  was  welcomed. 

Another  of  the  leading  men  of  Peru  is  Don  Nicolas  Pierola, 
who  has  been  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  political  dramas  and 
military  tragedies  that  have  been  enacted  during  the  last  ten 
years,  and  will  continue  to  be  heard  from  in  the  future.  lie 
has  had  a  most  remarkable  career,  having  been  four  times 
banished  from  the  republic.  Pierola  is  a  son-in-law  of  the 
ill-starred  Emperor  Iturbide  of  Mexico,  whose  daughter  he 
met  while  a  student  in  Paris.  Ilis  life  has  been  a  romantic 
one,  and  illustrates  the  ups  and  downs  of  South  American 
politics.  Pierola  pe.re  was  a  famous  scientist  and  litterateur, 
and  was  the  intimate  friend  and  co-worker  of  Humboldt,  Sir 
Humphry  Davy,  Doctor  Ton  Tscliudi,  the  Austrian  philoso¬ 
pher,  and  other  men  of  that  age.  He  was  for  a  long  time  a 
professor  of  natural  sciences  at  the  University  of  Madrid,  and 


LIMA. 


397 


returned  to  Peru,  his  native  country,  to  pursue  his  inquiries 
into  the  traditions  of  the  Incas,  and  to  preside  over  the  uni¬ 
versity  at  Arequipa,  the  second  city  in  Peru.  He  had  some¬ 
thing  to  do  with  politics  too,  and  was  the  Peruvian  Minister 
of  Finance  for  several  years. 


A  WARRIOR  AT  REST. 


Pierola  the  younger,  who  was  educated  in  Europe,  is  one 
of  the  most  accomplished  and  able  men  in  South  America. 
He  commenced  life  as  an  editor,  and  in  1864  became  the  man¬ 
ager  of  El  Tiempo ,  the  organ  of  President  Pezot,  who  was 


39S 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


overthrown  by  a  revolutionary  army  under  General  Prado. 
The  latter  banished  the  young  and  ardent  editor  until  he  was 
himself  overthrown.  Then  Pierola  returned  to  Peru,  and  be¬ 
came  the  Minister  of  Finance  under  President  Balta,  being 
the  ruling  spirit  of  the  administration,  and  inaugurating  the 
vast  system  of  public  improvements  under  Henry  Meiggs. 
Prado  again  led  a  successful  revolution,  and  in  1878  Pierola 
was  banished  for  the  second  time.  When  the  war  with  Chili 
broke  out  lie  returned  to  Peru,  and  tendered  his  allegiance  and 
his  sword  to  the  man  who  had  driven  him  into  exile.  His 
services  were  accepted,  and  he  became  the  commander  of  a 
regiment,  and  afterwards  a  general  of  division. 

In  December,  1879,  President  Prado  deserted  his  post  and 
secretly  fled  from  the  country,  leaving  a  proclamation  on  his 
desk  which  authorized  the  Vice-President  to  exercise  the  du¬ 
ties  of  the  office  “  until  he  had  returned  from  the  transaction 
of  some  very  urgent  and  important  business  which  demanded 
his  presence  abroad.”  The  army  of  Chili  had  been  success¬ 
ful  in  several  battles,  and  was  marching  upon  the  capital.  The 
army  of  Peru  had  been  practically  destroyed ;  its  ports  were 
blockaded,  its  treasury  was  empty,  and  the  President,  Prado, 
had  fled  from  the  results  of  his  blundering  imbecility.  He 
has  never  returned,  and' is  understood  to  lie  in  Europe. 

There  was  a  mere  gleam  of  hope  left  for  Peru,  and  the  peo¬ 
ple  called  on  Pierola  to  become  their  leader.  A  junta  or  con¬ 
vention  of  leading  men  was  quickly  called,  and  the  power  of 
military  and  political  chief,  which  is  the  polite  way  of  describ- 
ing  a  dictator,  was  conferred  upon  Pierola.  He  had  no  money, 
no  ammunition,  and  only  the  frightened  remnants  of  a  demor¬ 
alized  army ;  but  he  made  the  best  fight  he  could,  and  com¬ 
pelled  the  Chilian  army  to  stop  the  carnival  of  devastation 
they  had  begun.  When  Peru  was  conquered  the  Chilian 
Government  would  not  recognize  Pierola  as  dictator,  and  in 
the  absence  of  Prado,  the  constitutional  President,  set  up  a 
dummy  administration  of  their  own  choice,  with  which  terms 
of  peace  were  made,  forfeiting  the  strip  of  territory  contain¬ 
ing  the  deposits  of  guano  and  nitrate  of  soda.  This  was  what 


GATE-WAY  TO  THE  ANDES. 


LIMA. 


401 


Chili  desired,  and  for  this  she  made  the  war.  Her  Govern¬ 
ment  knew  that  Pierola  would  never  consent  to  sacrifice  the 
richest  portion  of  the  republic,  hence  it  refused  to  treat  with 
him,  and  caused  his  banishment  for  the  third  time. 

Pierola  went  to  France  again,  and  remained  in  exile  until 
May,  1885,  when  he  was  sent  for  by  the  business  men  of  Lima, 
who  endeavored  to  secure  a  suspension  of  hostilities  between 
Caceres  and  Iglesias,  the  leaders  of  the  rival  factions  of  Peru, 
and  to  place  Pierola  in  power,  in  order  to  restore  peace  to  the 
country  and  revive  its  paralyzed  trade  and  industries.  He 
returned  reluctantly,  and  his  friends  arranged  to  have  him 
proclaimed  President,  but  the  Iglesias  Government  hearing 
of  the  plot,  banished  him  for  a  fourth  time,  shortly  before 
Caceres  captured  the  city. 

The  financial  condition  of  Peru,  both  of  the  Government  and 
the  citizens,  was  deplorable  at  the  close  of  the  war,  and  has 
constantly  grown  worse  instead  of  better.  The  Government  is 
almost  entirely  without  sources  of  revenue,  and  all  attempts  to 
settle  the  external  debt  have  been  prevented  by  the  interfer¬ 
ence  of  Chili.  Business,  which  has  been  depressed  for  several 
years,  has  become  stagnant,  and  cannot  improve  until  stimu¬ 
lated  by  the  introduction  of  foreign  capital  and  labor,  which 
are  frightened  away  by  the  acts  of  the  Government  in  con¬ 
fiscating  private  property  to  sustain  its  own  existence.  The 
situation  is  therefore  not  only  desperate,  but  almost  hopeless. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  an  unknown  man,  a  fugitive 
from  justice,  arrived  at  the  port  of  Callao,  and  appeared  among 
the  Spaniards,  as  Manco  Capac,  at  once  the  Adam  and  the 
Christ  of  the  Incas,  appeared  to  the  Indians  two  thousand 
years  before.  As  the  mysterious  and  deified  Manco  Capac 
taught  the  Indians  a  knowledge  of  the  agricultural  and  me¬ 
chanical  arts,  this  unknown  man  taught  their  successors  to 
build  railroads,  and  stands  to-day  as  the  ideal  of  Yankee 
enterprise  and  engineering  genius.  He  plunged  the  Govern¬ 
ment  of  Peru  into  a  debt  that  will  never  be  paid,  but  laid  the 
foundations  for  a  system  of  internal  development  that  won  hi 
bring  the  republic  great  wealth  if  peace  could  be  only  secured. 

26 


402 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Everybody  has  heard  of  Henry  Meiggs,  the  partner  of  Ralston, 
the  California  banker,  who  drowned  himself  in  the  Golden 
Gate,  the  friend  of  Flood,  O’Brien,  Mackey,  Sharon,  and  one 
of  the  princes  of  the  golden  era  of  ’49.  Bret  Harte  has 
written  of  him,  and  Mark  Twain  has  used  him  as  a  text.  He 
committed  forgeries  in  San  Francisco  years  ago,  and  when 


HENRY  MEIGGS. 


his  crime  was  discovered  he  took  a  boat  and  rowed  out  into 
the  bay ;  but  instead  of  jumping  overboard,  as  Ralston  did 
twenty  years  afterwards,  he  climbed  upon  the  deck  of  a 
schooner,  purchased  her,  and  sailed  away  from  the  scene  of  his 
remarkable  career.  He  went  to  Peru,  bringing  much  of  his 
wealth  and  all  of  his  irresistible  energy  with  him.  These  he 
applied  to  the  difficulties  that  had  staggered  that  country,  and 


LIMA. 


403 


overcame  them.  He  sent  back  money  to  California  to  reim¬ 
burse  with  good  interest  those  who  lost  by  his  forgeries,  but 
remained  away  till  he  died,  one  of  the  richest,  most  influential, 
and  famous  men  on  the  coast.  From  Ecuador  to  Patagonia, 
through  Peru,  Bolivia,  and  Chili,  Meiggs’s  enterprises  extend¬ 
ed,  and  the  result  is  a  series  of  railroads  at  right  angles  with 
the  coast,  connecting  the  interior  of  the  country  with  the 
seaports,  and  giving  the  estates,  and  the  mines  in  the  mount¬ 
ains,  the  sugar  haciendas,  and  the  nitrate  beds,  easy  outlets 
to  the  ocean.  Nearly  every  port  on  the  west  coast  has  its 
little  railroad,  from  twenty  to  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  in 
length,  some  of  them  reaching  into  the  very  heart  of  the 
Andes,  the  arteries  of  the  continent’s  commerce,  and  intended 
to  make  profitable  possessions  Avhich  would  otherwise  have 
no  worth. 

The  Oroya  road,  which  Meiggs  left  incomplete,  has  been 
counted  as  the  eighth  wonder  of  the  world,  for  there  is  noth¬ 
ing  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  or  the  Alps  which  compares  with 
it  as  an  example  of  engineering  science,  or  presents  more  sub¬ 
lime  scenery.  But  neither  scenic  grandeur  nor  engineering 
genius  can  alone  make  a  railroad  pay,  particularly  if  it  goes 
nowhere.  In  this  instance  the  money  gave  out,  and  Meiggs 
died  when  the  road  was  only  partially  completed,  there  re¬ 
maining  fifty  miles  between  the  present  terminus  (Chicla)  and 
the  point  which  was  aimed  at— the  mines  of  Cerro  del  Pasco, 
one  of  the  richest  and  most  extensive  silver  deposits  in  the 
world.  Most  of  the  grading  and  tunnelling  between  Chicla 
and  the  mines  has  been  completed,  and  it  only  remains  to  lay 
the  ties  and  rails  and  put  in  the  bridges  to  send  a  locomotive 
over  the  Andes  into  the  great  valley  which  stretches  north 
and  south  between  the  two  Cordilleras.  This  Mr.  Grace  has 
agreed  to  do.  The  completion  of  the  line  to  the  mining  re¬ 
gions  will  cost  ten  million  dollars,  but  that  portion  already 
constructed  and  in  operation,  with  all  its  rolling  stock,  sta¬ 
tion-houses,  and  equipments  of  every  sort,  he  gets  for  prac¬ 
tically  nothing,  as  under  the  conditions  of  a  ninety-nine  years’ 
lease  he  has  the  use  of  the  railroad  and  all  that  belongs  with 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


404 


it  free  for  the  first  seven  years,  and  pays  but  twenty-five  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  per  year  rental  for  the  property  during  the  re¬ 
mainder  of  the  term.  In  other  words,  Mr.  Grace  gets  a  prop- 


TUF.  HEART  OF  TnE  ANDES. 


erty  which  cost  twenty -seven  million  six  hundred  thousand 
dollars,  eighty-six  miles  of  railroad  already  equipped  and  in 
operation,  fifty  miles  of  the  most  expensive  tunnelling  and 
grading  in  the  world  for  nothing,  provided  he  will  complete 
the  line.  And  more  than  this,  he  gets  the  Cerro  del  Pasco  sil¬ 
ver  mines,  which  were  worked  for  centuries  by  the  Jesuits, 
and  have  yielded  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  even  under 
the  primitive  system  of  working  which  was  applied  to  them 
by  the  monks  and  the  native  Indians.  They  were  discovered 
by  a  native,  who  while  watching  sheep  on  the  hills  was  over- 


LIMA. 


405 


taken  by  night.  He  piled  together  a  few  stones,  under  the 
lee  of  which  he  built  a  fire.  In  the  morning  he  noticed  that 
the  heat  had  split  some  of  the  stones,  and  he  was  attracted  by 
something  shining  from  what  had  been  the  interior  of  one  of 
them.  He  picked  up  the  stone,  and  took  it  home  to  show  to 
his  friends.  The  bright  substance  was  found  to  be  silver, 
and  the  great  mines  of  the  Cerro  del  Pasco  were  discovered. 

From  1630  to  1824  the  mines  of  the  Cerro  del  Pasco  are 
said  to  have  produced  nearly  twenty-seven  thousand  two  hun¬ 
dred  tons  of  pure  silver.  The  ore  is  not  in  fissure  veins,  but 
in  an  enormous  mass,  similar  to  the  carbonates  of  Leadville, 
and  yields  from  forty  to  one  hundred  dollars  per  ton.  It  is 
worked  at  a  cost  of  three  dollars  per  ton.  Even  the  tailings, 
which  the  priests  and  Indians  have  left  during  the  two  and  a 
half  centuries  they  have  been  digging  away  in  their  rude  man¬ 
ner,  can  be  shipped  to  Hew  York  at  a  profit,  and  they  amount 
to  millions  of  tons,  with  silver  enough  in  them,  it  is  estimated, 
to  pay  the  cost  of  constructing  the  road,  and  to  afford  it  a 
business  that  will  pay  the  expense  of  operating. 


AN  INCA  REMINISCENCE. 


406 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


About  ten  per  cent,  of  the  Cerro  del  Pasco  district  is  now 
occupied  by  native  miners,  who  are  pegging-  along  in  the  old- 
fashioned  way,  losing  more  silver  than  they  gain  in  their 
operations,  and  securing  about  one-quarter  of  the  profit  they 
could  obtain  by  the  use  of  improved  machinery.  Then-  mines 
are  constantly  flooded  with  water,  and  have  to  be  abandoned 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  There  are  also  a  number  of 
old  mines,  which  were  worked  first  by  the  Jesuits  and  then  by 
the  Government,  but  which  have  been  given  up  long  since  and 
allowed  to  fill  with  water.  These  abandoned  mines  Mr.  Grace 
agrees  to  pump  and  place  in  working  order,  and  when  they 
are  cleared  he  has  the  privilege  of  working  them  to  his  own 
profit  for  ninety -nine  years.  The  local  miners  have  agreed  to 
give  him  twenty  per  cent,  of  their  gross  product  for  intro¬ 
ducing  pumping  machinery  and  operating  it.  The  same  set 
of  pumps  will  serve  the  whole  district,  and  the  revenue  which 
will  be  derived  from  the  native  miners  will  pay  the  expense 
of  keeping  in  order  the  mines  which  Mr.  Grace  will  operate. 
It  is  estimated  that  seven  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  dollars 
will  clean  up  the  property  and  pay  for  the  necessary  machinery 
to  do  thorough  work,  and  the  profits  cannot  be  overestimated 
if  all  that  is  told  of  the  mines  is  true. 

I  will  not  repeat  the  fables  and  tradition  about  these  mines, 
of  which  the  air  is  full.  The  El  Dorado  for  which  the  world 
was  hunt  in"  two  centuries  ago  was  but  a  shadow  of  the  sub- 
stance  said  to  have  been  found  here.  Away  in  the  heart  of 
the  Andes,  almost  beyond  the  reach  of  men,  involving  an 
enormous  cost  for  transportation,  and  an  expense  of  opera¬ 
tion  which  miners  of  modern  times  would  consider  unprofit¬ 
able,  the  priests  and  monks  in  past  centuries  found  untold 
tons  of  treasure.  The  one-fifth  which  was  a  1  wavs  set  apart 
for  the  King  of  Spain,  and  of  which  a  record  was  scrupu¬ 
lously  kept  bv  the  viceroys,  reached  into  the  millions,  and  the 
tithes  which  were  paid  to  the  Church  amounted  to  millions 
more.  During  the  last  few  decades  the  mines  have  scarcely 
been  worked,  for  as  large  a  product  of  silver  as  Peru  could 
consume  was  found  in  more  convenient  localities. 


LIMA. 


407 


The  railroad  was  begun  by  Mr.  Meiggs  in  1870.  Starting 
from  the  sea,  it  ascends  the  narrow  valley  of  the  once  sacred 
Rimac,  rising  five  thousand  feet  in  the  first  forty-six  miles  to 
a  beautiful  valley,  where  the  people  of  Lima  have  found  an 
attractive  summer  resort ;  then  it  follows  a  winding,  giddy 
pathway  along  the  edge  of  precipices  and  over  bridges  that 
seem  suspended  in  the  air,  tunnels  the  Andes  at  an  altitude 


COWHIDE  BRIDGE  OVER  TIIE  RIMAC. 


of  fifteen  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty -five  feet — the  most 
elevated  spot  in  the  world  where  a  piston-rod  is  moved  by 
steam — and  ends  at  Oroya,  twelve  thousand  one  hundred  and 
seventy -eight  feet  above  the  sea.  Between  the  coast  and  the 
summit  there  is  not  an  inch  of  down  grade,  and  the  track  has 
been  forced  through  the  mountains  by  a  series  of  sixty-three 
tunnels,  whose  aggregate  length  is  twenty-one  thousand  feet. 
The  great  tunnel  of  Galera,  by  which  the  pinnacle  of  the 
Andes  is  pierced,  will  be,  when  completed,  three  thousand 


408 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


eight  hundred  feet  long,  and  will  be  the  highest  elevation 
on  the  earth's  surface  where  any  such  work  has  been  under¬ 
taken.  Besides  boring  the  mountains  of  granite  and  blasting 
clefts  along  their  sides  to  rest  the  track  upon,  deep  cuttings 


INCA  RUINS  OF  UNKNOWN  AGE. 


and  superb  bridges,  the  system  of  reverse  tangents  had  to  be 
adopted  in  canons  that  were  too  narrow  for  a  curve.  So  the 
track  zigzags  up  the  mountain  side  on  the  switch  and  back-up 
principle,  the  trains  taking  one  leap  forward,  and  after  being 
switched  on  to  another  track,  another  leap  backward,  until  the 
summit  is  won ;  so  that  often  there  are  four  or  five  lines  of 
track  parallel  to  each  other,  one  above  another,  on  the  mount¬ 
ain  side.  Almost  the  entire  length  of  the  road  was  made  by 
blasting.  There  is  no  earth  in  sight  except  what  was  carted 
for  use  in  ballasting,  and  the  work  of  grading  was  done,  not 
by  the  pick  and  shovel,  but  with  the  drill  and  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  pounds  of  powder. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  construction  of  this  road  cost  Peru 
seven  thousand  lives.  Pestilence  and  accident,  landslides, 
falling  bowlders,  premature  explosions,  sirroche —  a  disease 
which  attacks  those  who  are  not  accustomed  to  the  rare  air 
of  the  high  latitudes — fevers  due  to  the  deposits  of  rotten 


LIMA. 


409 


granite,  and  other  causes  resulted  in  a  frightful  mortality  dur¬ 
ing  the  seven  years  the  road  was  under  construction ;  but  the 
project  was  pushed  on  until  the  funds  gave  out.  The  cost  in 
human  life  was  Ho  obstacle.  At  several  points  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  to  lower  men  by  ropes  over  the  edges  of  precipices  to 
drill  holes  in  rocks  and  put  in  charges  of  blasting-powder,  and 
this  reckless  mode  of  construction  was  attended  by  frequent 
fatalities.  A  curious  accident  occurred  at  one  point  on  the 
line,  where  a  plumber  was  soldering  a  leak  in  a  water-pipe. 
A  train  of  mules,  loaded  with  cans  of  powder,  was  being  driv¬ 
en  up  the  trail.  One  of  them  rubbed  against  the  plumber, 
who  struck  at  the  animal  with  his  red  -  hot  soldering  -  iron, 
which  in  some  way  came  in  contact  with  the  powder,  and 
caused  an  explosion  that  blew  the  whole  train  of  mules,  the 
gang  of  workmen,  the  plumber,  and  everybody  who  was  by, 
over  the  precipices,  the  sides  and  bottom  of  which  were 
strewn  with  fragments  of  men  and  mules  for  a  mile. 


A  SETTLEMENT  OF  THIS  CENTURY. 


The  scenic  grandeur  of  the  Andes  is  presented  nowhere 
more  impressively  than  along  the  canon  of  the  Rimac  River, 
which  this  railroad  follows.  The  mountains  are  entirely  bare 
of  vegetation,  and  are  monster  masses  of  rock,  torn  and  twist¬ 
ed,  rent  and  shattered  by  tremendous  volcanic  upheavals.  At 


410 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  bottom  of  the  canon,  and  where  it  occasionally  spreads 
out  into  a  valley  of  minute  dimensions,  are  the  remains  of 
towns  and  cities,  whose  origin  is  hidden  in  the  mists  of  fable, 
and  whose  history  is  unknown.  This  region  bears  no  resem- 


A  CITY  or  KOUU  CENTURIES  AGO. 


blance  to  any  other  picture  of  nature — lifted  above  the  rest 
of  the  world,  as  coldly  and  calmly  silent,  as  impenetrable,  as 
the  arctic  stars.  Here  was  developed  a  civilization  which  left 
memorials  of  its  advancement,  genius,  and  industry  carved 
in  massive  stone,  and  written  upon  the  everlasting  hills  in 
symbols  which  even  the  earthquakes  have  been  unable  to 
erase.  Here  are  the  ruins  of  cities  which  were  more  popu¬ 
lous  than  any  that  have  existed  in  Peru  since — evidences  of 
industry  which  their  destroyers  were  too  indolent  to  imitate, 
and  of  a  skill  wliich  could  cope  with  everything  but  the  de¬ 
structive  weapons  of  the  invaders.  A  survey  of  their  remaius 
justifies  the  estimates  given  of  their  enormous  population, 
which  are  that  the  people  once  herded  in  these  narrow  val¬ 
leys  were  as  numerous  as  those  now  spread  over  the  United 
States.  The  struggle  which  they  had  to  sustain  themselves 
is  shown  in  the  traces  of  their  industry  and  patience.  They 
built  their  dwellings  upon  rocks,  and  buried  their  dead  in 


LIMA. 


411 


caves,  in  order  to  utilize  what  soil  there  was  for  agriculture. 
They  excavated  great  areas  iu  the  desert  until  they  reached 
moisture  enough  for  vegetation,  and  then  brought  guano  from 
the  islands  of  the  sea  to  fill  these  sunken  gardens.  They  ter¬ 
raced  every  hill  and  mountain  side,  and  placed  soil  in  the 
crevices  of  the  rocks,  until  not  an  inch  of  surface  that  could 
grow  a  stalk  of  maize  was  left  unproductive. 

The  steep  mountains  along  the  Rimac  are  terraced  up  to 
the  very  summit,  these  terraces  being  often  as  narrow  as  the 
steps  of  a  stairway,  and  many  of  them  are  walled  up  with 
stone.  They  are  veritable  hanging-gardens,  and  lie  on  such 
slopes  that  they  look  as  if  it  were  impossible  for  any  one  to 
get  foothold  to  cultivate  them,  or  even  for  the  roots  of  what 
was  planted  there  to  sustain  the  mighty  winds  which  some¬ 
times  sweep  down  the  valley. 


A  BIT  OF  INCA  ARCHITECTURE. 


The  irrigation  system  of  the  Incas  was  perfect,  their  ditches 
extending  for  hundreds  of  miles,  and  curving  around  the  hills, 
here  sustained  by  high  walls  of  masonry,  and  there  cut  through 
the  living  rock.  They  were  carried  over  narrow  valleys  upon 
enormous  embankments,  and  show  evidence  of  engineering 
skill  as  great  as  that  which  lifted  the  Meiggs  railroad  above 


412 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  clouds  into  the  mountains.  Massive  dams  and  reservoirs 
were  erected  to  collect  the  floods  that  came  from  the  melting 
snows,  and  the  water  was  taken  to  localities  which  were  rain- 


REIjIC  of  a  past  civilization. 

less.  Under  these  conditions,  in  this  great  struggle  for  exist¬ 
ence,  the  Incas  established  and  sustained  a  Government — the 
first  in  which  the  equal  rights  of  every  human  being  were  rec¬ 
ognized — and  worshipped  a  being  whose  attributes  were  simi¬ 
lar  to  those  of  the  Christian  God.  The  great  sea,  breaking 
with  ceaseless  thunder  upon  the  rocky  coast,  impressed  the 
dweller  in  the  desert  with  reverence  and  awe,  and  he  recog¬ 
nized  by  an  equally  natural  logic  that  the  sun  was  the  source 
of  light  and  happiness.  Hence  these  two  objects,  the  sun  and 
the  sea,  were  personified,  and  were  seated  upon  the  thrones 
in  the  magnificent  pantheons  of  the  Incas.  The  race  which 
conquered  them  came  with  dripping  swords  and  lust  for  plun¬ 
der.  Skilled  in  the  arts  of  peace,  but  powerless  in  war,  there 
was  no  adequate  resistance,  and  the  blood  -  and  -  gold  -  thirsty 


LIMA. 


413 


Pizarro  rode  up  this  valley  on  a  mission  of  murder,  rapine, 
and  destruction.  The  towns  stand  as  he  left  them,  with  not 
even  an  echo  to  break  the  silence.  Occasionally  the  Span¬ 
iards  built  new  places  of  residence  to  utilize  the  improve¬ 
ments  of  the  Incas,  but  in  1882  the  Chilian  army  came  down 
the  valley,  and  treated  the  Peruvians  as  Pizarro  had  treated 
the  race  which  he  found  here. 

A  visit  to  the  Incas’  cemeteries,  where  millions  of  bodies 
are  buried  in  the  drifting  sand,  gives  a  clew  to  the  extent 
of  the  original  population,  as  well  as  to  their  arts,  religion, 
and  customs.  The  dead  were  preserved  after  the  custom  of 
ancient  Egypt,  and  a  few  moments’  toil  with  a  shovel  will 
disclose  mummies  whose  features  are  perfectly  preserved, 
whose  eyes  are  petrified,  whose  fingers  are  clasped  with  rings, 
and  who  are  surrounded  with  such  implements  and  utensils 
as  those  who  buried  them  thought  they  would  need  in  the 
other  wrorld.  As  the  soldier  takes  his  blanket  and  the  cook- 


BUINS  OF  THE  TEMPLE  OF  THE  SUN. 


414 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ing-kit,  his  food  and  his  portable  treasures,  so  did  the  doc¬ 
trine  of  future  life  cause  the  dead  Incas  to  be  equipped  for 

their  departure  from  one  world 
to  another.  In  this  rainless  re¬ 
gion,  protected  by  the  magnetic 
sand,  nothing  can  decay,  and  the 
contents  of  the  Inca  graves  are 
as  well  preserved  as  if  their  age 
were  counted  by  days  instead  of 
centuries.  Wood,  vegetable,  and 
flesh  petrify,  fabrics  and  articles 
of  stone  and  clay  are  preserved. 
There  is  no  moisture  to  produce 
decay  of  the  bodies,  and  there 
are  no  insects  to  consume  them. 
The  contents  of  the  sand  -  hills 
are  protected  from  every  form 
of  destruction,  and  their  extent 

has  never  been  measured. 

It  is  still  fashionable  to  go  on  resurrection  expeditions  to  the 
Inca  burving-grounds  for  mummies,  and  for  the  articles  that 
were  placed  in  their  graves.  In 
each  grave  are  found  articles  of 
decoration,  as  well  as  the  uten¬ 
sils  required  by  the  spirits  to  set 
up  house-keeping  in  the  happy 
land  —  rings  and  other  orna¬ 
ments  of  gold  and  silver,  cups 
and  platters  of  both  metals  made 
in  quaint  designs,  copper  articles, 
strings  of  beads,  weaving  and 
cooking  apparatus,  water -jugs, 
weapons  of  war,  and  other  curi¬ 
osities  that  interest  antiquarians 
nowadays.  Professor  Ramondi, 
a  distinguished  French  scientist 

in  Lima,  has  a  collection  of  Inca  fresh  from  the  tomb. 


AX  OLD  SETTLER. 


LIMA. 


415 


relics  for  which  he  was  offered  two  hundred  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  in  gold  by  the  British  Museum.  Under  the  patronage 
of  the  Government  he  is  writing  a  voluminous  work  on  the 
antiquities  of  Peru,  three  volumes  of  which  have  been  pub¬ 
lished,  and  five  more  are  yet  to  come. 

The  most  curious  things  in  Peru  are  the  mummies’  eyes — 
petrified  eyeballs — which  are  usually  to  be  found  in  the  graves, 
if  one  is  careful  in  digging.  The  Incas  had  a  way  of  preserv¬ 
ing  the  eyes  of  the  dead  from  decay,  some  process  which  mod¬ 
ern  science  cannot  comprehend,  and  the  eyeballs  make  very 
pretty  settings  for  pins.  They  are  yellow,  and  hold  light  like 
an  opal.  It  is  an  accepted  theory  among  scientists,  however, 
that  before  the  burial  of  their  mummies  the  .Incas  replaced 
the  natural  eye  with  that  of  the  squid,  or  cuttle-fish,  and  that 
these  beautiful  things  are  shams. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  BOLIVIA. 


“ The  Callao  painter”  is  something  that  skippers  dread. 
Its  brush  is  the  breeze,  and  its  pigments  are  in  the  air.  It 
comes  and  goes  without  premonition,  and  its  work  is  usually 
done  in  the  night.  A  vessel  will  enter  the  harbor  of  Callao 
with  its  timbers  as  white  as  the  virgin  snow,  and  its  planking 
as  cl&in  as  holy-stone  and  elbow-grease  can  make  them.  The 
disgusted  sailors  may  awaken  in  the  morning  and  find  every¬ 
thing  covered  with  a  brown,  nasty  film,  which  penetrates  the 
cabin,  and  even  the  battened  hatchways  of  the  vessel,  filling 
the  air  with  a  repulsive  odor,  and  clinging  to  the  wood-work 
until  it  is  scraped  off.  It  looks  like  a  chocolate  -  colored  frost, 
but  does  not  melt  in  the  sun.  When  it  is  damp  one  can  re¬ 
move  it  easilv,  but  if  it  once  dries  it  sticks  like  paint,  and  its 
tenacity  is  not  easily  overcome.  The  origin  and  source  of 
this  mysterious  and  aggravating  artist  is  unknown,  but  it  is 
peculiar  to  that  harbor.  JSowhere  else  is  the  phenomenon 
noticed,  or  at  least  ship-masters  who  have  sailed  the  world 
over  say  that  Callao  is  the  only  place  where  a  ship  can  be 
painted  inside  and  outside  in  a  single  night.  Of  course  there 
are  theories  about  it  which  may  or  may  not  hold  good,  and 
over  them  scientific  minds  have  argued,  and  will  argue  inter¬ 
minably.  Some  say  that  the  guano  is  forced  up  bv  vapors 
into  the  atmosphere,  while  others  assert  that  it  is  a  species 
of  volcanic  dust  driven  through  the  water  by  subterranean 
forces.  However,  the  only  point  on  which  all  agree  is  that 
it  is  a  repulsive  phenomenon,  and  has  been  the  cause  of  more 
profanity  than  anything  else  which  seamen  encounter  on  the 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


417 


west  coast.  It  is  never  noticed  on  land,  but  only  in  the  harbor, 
and  for  a  few  miles  up  and  down  the  shore. 

The  glory  of  Callao  as  a  shipping  centre  has  departed. 
Where  formerly  there  were  a  hundred  vessels  in  the  harbor, 
there  are  only  half  a  dozen  now.  The  lack  of  trade  in  Peru, 
the  poverty  of  the  people,  the  enormous  tariffs  imposed  by 
the  Government,  and  the  exorbitant  port  dues  charged,  have 
driven  commerce  away.  Two  years  ago  the  Government  in 
its  poverty  and  need  of  funds  was  willing  to  dispose  of  every¬ 
thing  it  could  control  for  spot  cash,  and  practically  sold  the 


WHERE  PERU  S  WEALTH  CAME  FROM. 


harbor  at  Callao  to  a  French  company,  to  whom  the  docks 
and  anchorage  have  been  leased  for  a  term  of  years  at  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year.  This  company  has  the 
right  to  tax  shipping  to  any  extent  it  pleases,  and  has  estab¬ 
lished  a  system  of  rules  so  oppressive  as  to  drive  most  of  the 
vessels  away. 

From  Callao  to  Valparaiso  the  coast  is  a  panorama  of  deso¬ 
lation — a  constant  succession  of  bleak  and  barren  cliffs,  with 
not  a  green  or  lovely  thing  for  fifteen  hundred  miles.  On 
one  side  is  the  Pacific  Ocean,  with  its  great  swells  sweeping 
almost  around  the  globe,  as  regular  and  constant  as  the  throb- 
27 


41S 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


bings  of  the  human  pulse.  On  the  other  side  rise  the  impene¬ 
trable  Andes  in  a  range  whose  altitude  averages  fifteen 
thousand  feet,  and  whose  peaks  tower  twenty  and  twenty- 
two  thousand  feet  above  the  sea.  Between  the  ocean  and  the 
mountains  for  a  thousand  miles,  with  a  varying  width  from 
twenty  to  fifty  miles,  lies  a  strip  of  drifting  sand,  which  no 
rivers  water,  and  where  rain  never  falls.  All  the  water  used 
by  the  inhabitants  is  taken  from  the  ocean,  that  for  me¬ 
chanical  purposes  being  used  in  its  natural  condition,  and  that 
for  food  being  condensed  into  steam,  and  purged  of  its  salt 
by  machinery.  There  is  not  a  well  or  a  spring  along  the 
coast,  and  drinking-water  is  an  article  of  merchandise,  like 
ice  or  flour,  costing  about  seven  cents  a  gallon  to  the  con¬ 
sumers. 

Some  distance  below  Callao,  upon  a  great  rock  which  rises 
from  the  sea,  and  shows  an  unbroken  surface  to  the  western 
sun,  is  carved  the  image  of  a  candelabra — an  eight -horned 
candlestick — about  one  hundred  feet  long  and  fifty  feet  across 
from  end  to  end  of  the  lower  arms.  The  execution  is  perfect, 
and  it  is  said  to  be  carved  in  lines  about  a  foot  deep  and  a 
yard  wide.  When  and  how  the  picture  came  there  no  one 
can  tell.  The  oldest  sailor  on  the  coast  says  that  the  oldest 
man  he  knew  when  a  boy  could  tell  nothing  of  its  origin. 
They  call  it  “The  Miraculous  Candlestick,”  and  pious  Catho¬ 
lics  say  that  St.  James  dropped  it  when  he  came  to  Peru  and 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Spaniards,  at  the  time  they 
were  driving  the  Incas  out  of  their  ancient  homes. 

In  the  interior  of  Peru,  upon  a  similar  rock,  is  the  imprint 
of  a  human  foot  as  long  as  a  pikestaff,  which  is  supposed  to 
mark  where  the  Apostle  alighted  when  he  dropped  down 
from  heaven  to  aid  in  the  subjugation  of  the  heathen  and  the 
triumph  of  the  Cross.  At  any  rate,  like  the  foot  of  St.  James, 
this  image  of  the  Holy  Candlestick,  if  made  by  human  labor, 
must  have  cost  months  and  months  of  toil  at  a  time  when 
such  things  were  needed  to  impress  the  Indians  with  a  rever¬ 
ence  for  the  Church  of  Rome  and  the  doctrines  it  taught. 
Sometimes,  if  the  wind  blows  seaward,  the  carving  is  covered 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO, 


419 


by  the  drifting  sand,  when  the  padre  of  the  nearest  village 
goes  down  with  a  lot  of  Indians  to  dig  it  out. 

The  first  port  of  importance  on  the  coast  south  of  Callao  is 
the  town  of  Mollendo  (pronounced  Molyendo),  the  western 
terminus  of  the  railway  that  furnishes  means  of  communica¬ 
tion  for  Bolivia  and  the  interior  of  Peru  to  the  sea.  It  was 
built  in  1876  by  Henry  Meiggs  for  the  Peruvian  Government, 
at  a  cost  of  forty -four  million  dollars — an  enormous  average 


A  PERUVIAN  PORT. 


of  one  hundred  and  thirty -five  thousand  dollars  per  mile ;  for 
it  is  only  three  hundred  and  twenty-five  miles  long.  Its  west¬ 
ern  terminus  is  the  highest  point  now  reached  by  steam,  being 
something  over  fourteen  thousand  five  hundred  feet  above  the 
sea,  although  the  Oroya  road  will  be  higher  when  it  reaches 
the  Cerro  del  Pasco  mines.  No  other  railway  in  the  world 
can  show  an  equal  amount  of  excavation  or  such  massive  em¬ 
bankments,  but  the  Oroya  road  has  more  tunnels.  The  line 
is  now  under  the  management  of  a  Boston  man,  Mr.  Thorn- 


420 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


dike,  and  everything  is  conducted  upon  the  United  States 
plan.  Along  the  side  of  the  track,  for  a  distance  of  eighty- 
five  miles,  is  an  eight-inch  iron  pipe,  for  the  purpose  of  sup¬ 
plying  the  stations  with  water,  as  there  is  none  on  the  coast , 
and  it  is  the  longest  aqueduct  in  the  world,  coming  fioin 
springs  in  the  mountains,  seven  thousand  feet  above  the  sea, 
to  the  port  of  Mollendo. 


TI1E  OLD  TRAIL. 


Across  a  hot,  lifeless,  desolate  desert  the  railway  runs  one 
hundred  and  seven  miles  to  the  city  of  Arequipa  the  name 
appropriately  signifying  “  a  place  of  rest ;  and  it  is  one  of 
the  oldest,  most  celebrated,  and  beautiful  towns  in  Peiu,  sit¬ 
uated  in  a  small  oasis  in  the  desert,  rich  in  its  agricultural 
resources,  and  surrounded  by  valuable  mines.  Just  behind 
the  city  is  as  magnificent  and  imposing  a  mountain  as  can 
be  found  anywhere  in  the  world — the  volcano  Misti,  18,538 
feet  high,  and  covered  with  eternal  snow.  The  city  Avas  found¬ 
ed  by  Pizarro  in  1540,  and  has  always  been  second  to  Lima 
in  size  and  importance,  being  the  political  as  Avell  as  the  com¬ 
mercial  capital  of  the  Southern  provinces,  and  the  seat  of  a 
university  which  for  nearly  three  hundred  years  has  been  the 
most  famous  upon  the  Avest  coast  in  South  America,  and  has 


AREQUIPA. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


423 


graduated  the  most  eminent  scholars  and  statesmen  in  the 
history  of  Peru. 

Crossing  the  Paso  de  Arricroo  between  the  greatest  cluster 
of  peaks  in  the  Andes,  south  of  Quito,  the  railway  reaches 
Vuicarrago,  one  hundred  miles  from  Arequipa,  the  highest 
town  in  the  world,  where  the  barometer  in  the  plaza  shows  an 
elevation  of  14,443  feet.  The  ascent  to  it  is  usually  made  by 
stages,  the  traveller  taking  two  or  three  days  for  it,  so  as  to 
accustom  himself  gradually  to  the  altitude;  for  the  sudden 
change  from  tide -water  to  this  enormous  elevation  —  a  dis¬ 
tance  of  only  two  hundred  and  seven  miles — generally  brings 
on  that  distressing  disease  sirroche.  It  is  always  painful,  and 
often  dangerous.  The  first  symptom  is  numbness  of  the  limbs, 
then  dizziness  and  nausea ;  the  blood  bursts  from  the  ears  and 
nose,  the  lips  crack  and  bleed,  a  feeling  of  faintness  makes  it 
impossible  to  stand,  and  there  is  no  cure  but  absolute  quiet 
or  a  return  to  a  lower  altitude.  During  the  construction  of 
the  railway  a  great  many  men  died  from  the  effects  of  the 
dreaded  sirroche,  which  is  often  followed  by  a  sudden  and 
quickly  fatal  mountain  fever.  Few  people  escape  the  ailment, 
and  no  animal  but  the  llama  and  others  of  that  species  na¬ 
tive  to  the  mountain  regions  can  survive.  At  every  town 
along  the  road  droves  of  llamas  can  be  seen  which  have  been 
driven  in  from  the  mountain  settlements  laden  with  furs  and 
skins,  or  with  ore  from  the  mines.  The  llama  is  the  only 
beast  of  burden  in  the  Upper  Andes,  and  is  docile,  patient,  sure¬ 
footed,  and  speedy.  It  can  carry  a  burden  of  one  hundred 
pounds,  which  is  fastened  to  a  pack-saddle,  and  when  that 
weight  is  exceeded  will  lie  down  and  refuse  to  move  until 
the  surplus  is  removed.  The  llama  is  about  as  large  as  a  one- 
year-old  colt  or  a  good-sized  black-tail-  buck.  It  has  a  heavy 
coat  of  wool ;  but  those  that  are  used  for  transportation  pur¬ 
poses  are  seldom  sheared. 

The  vicuna,  a  sort  of  gazelle,  a  gentle,  timid  animal,  is  found 
in  large  numbers  in  the  interior  of  the  Andes,  particularly  in 
Bolivia.  It  is  fawn-colored,  has  long,  soft,  silken  hair,  with 
a  peculiar  gloss  that  resembles  what  are  known  as  “  changea- 


424 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA, 


ble  silks,”  and  changes  color  in  different  lights.  In  the  old 
Inca  days,  before  the  Spanish  invasion,  centuries  ago,  the 
vicuna  was  the  royal  ermine  of  the  Inca  kings,  and  no  one 
but  the  Imperial  family  and  nobles  of  a  certain  rank  was 
allowed  to  wear  it.  The  animal  was  also  protected  by  some 
sacred  tradition,  and  was  allowed  to  go  unharmed  in  the  foi1- 


THE  VICUNA. 


ests,  where  it  accumulated  in  great  numbers  ;  but  the  Spanish 
invaders,  regardless  of  all  rights,  human  and  divine,  hunted  it 
down,  and  slaughtered  it  for  food.  The  Indians  expected 
that  some  severe  penalty  would  be  visited  upon  the  invaders 
for  destroying  and  eating  the  sacred  animal,  and  lost  faith 
when  they  escaped  divine  retribution.  Now  vicuna  skins  are 
very  scarce  and  are  expensive,  and  the  natives  attempt  to 


LAKE  TITICACA. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


427 


impose  upon  strangers  who  seek  them  robes  made  of  the 
skins  of  guanaco  kids,  killed  and  skinned  the  moment  they 
are  born. 

The  guanaco  is  supposed  to  be  a  cross  of  the  vicuna  and 
the  llama,  and  is  next  in  value  and  beauty  to  the  vicuna.  If 
the  kid  is  killed  the  moment  it  is  born  the  hair  has  the  same 
color,  and  is  about  as  fine  as  the  genuine  vicuna,  but  is  not  so 
long  or  so  luscious.  This  animal  is  numerous,  easily  domesti¬ 
cated,  and  breeds  rapidly.  It  is  almost  as  plentiful  in  South 
America  as  the  goat,  and  is  valuable  for  its  skin  and  flesh. 
The  body  is  deep  at  the  breast,  but  narrow  at  the  loins,  and 
is  covered  with  long,  soft,  very  fine  hair,  which  is  usually  a 
pale  yellow,  except  under  the  belly,  where  it  is  a  beautiful 
snowy  white.  It  has  many  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
North  American  deer,  being  very  swift-footed  and  graceful, 
combined  with  the  strength  and  endurance  of  the  llama,  being 
able  to  carry  a  load  of  from  seventy-five  to  one  hundred  and 
twenty -five  pounds  for  a  long  distance.  The  flesh  resem¬ 
bles  that  of  the  antelope,  but  is  not  as  juicy  as  venison.  The 
skin  is  invaluable  to  the  Indians,  as  it  furnishes  the  material 
of  which  their  garments  are  made.  Occasionally  in  the  stom¬ 
ach  of  a  guanaco  is  found  what  is  called  a  “  bezoar  ”  stone,  a 
magical  sort  of  affair,  which  will  cure  any  kind  of  disease  if 
carried  in  the  pocket.  Large  numbers  of  guanaco  skins  are 
sent  to  Europe,  where  they  are  used  for  carriage  robes,  for 
lining  coats  and  cloaks,  for  trimming,  and  for  other  purposes 
to  which  fine  fur  is  adapted.  Large  quantities  of  alpaca  and 
also  llama  wool  are  exported  from  Chili  and  Peru ;  some  of  it 
comes  to  the  United  States. 

The  alpaca  is  a  sort  of  cross  between  the  llama  and  the 
sheep.  The  llamas,  alpacas,  and  guanacos  have  a  peculiar 
way  of  defending  themselves.  If  abused  or  made  angry  by 
teasing,  they  will  turn  upon  their  assailants,  and  squirt  a  pint 
or  so  of  saliva,  like  a  shower-bath,  from  between  their  teeth, 
being  able  to  throw  it  writh  great  force  five  or  six  feet.  If 
this  saliva  gets  into  the  mouth  or  eyes,  or  upon  any  place  on 
the  flesh  where  the  skin  is  broken,  it  is  poisonous,  and  inflam- 


428 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


mation  sets  in  at  once.  It  is  said  that  men  frequently  die 
of  blood-poisoning  from  this  cause,  and  a  native  will  keep 
clear  of  the  nose  of  a  vicious  guanaco  as  a  colored  person 
will  avoid  the  heels  of  an  Irish  mule. 


A  STREET  LX  CUZCO. 


Traversing  the  pass  of  Alto  del  Crucero,  14,660  feet  above 
the  level  of  the  sea,  and  the  highest  altitude  reached  by  any 
railway  in  the  world,  the  road  descends  into  the  great  basin 
of  Titicaca,  the  heart  of  the  Andes,  stretching  northward  and 
southward  between  the  two  great  chains  of  the  Cordilleras 
for  fifteen  hundred  miles,  almost  level,  and  twelve  thousand 
feet  above  the  ocean.  Here  in  majestic  splendor  lies  Lake 
Titicaca,  one  of  whose  islands  was  the  Eden  of  the  Incas,  the 
birthplace  of  that  prehistoric  empire  whose  civilization  has 
been  the  wonder  and  mystery  of  centuries.  Here  Manco 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


429 


still  remain  a  mystery,  and  will  never  be  known.  These  mon¬ 
uments  of  an  extinct  civilization,  these  evidences  of  art  and 
industry  that  surpass  any  prehistoric  architecture  on  the  earth, 
are  standing  now  in  mute  impressiveness,  mocking  decay,  as 


Capac  (the  Adam)  and  Mama  Ocllo  (the  Eve)  of  Inca  tradi 
tion,  the  Children  of  the  Sun,  arose  like  Aphrodite,  and  bear¬ 
ing  a  golden  rod,  marched  down  the  valley  until  they  reached 
the  place  where  Cuzco  now  stands,  and  there  commanded  the 
Indians  to  erect  a  city,  the  seat  of  an  Imperial  dynasty  which 
lasted  a  thousand  years,  and  possessed  a  wealth  and  an  indus¬ 
try  that  had  no  measure.  Around  the  lake  stand  the  mighty 
temples  and  palaces,  erected  of  blocks  of  stone  as  large  as 
those  of  the  Pyramids,  quarried  and  conveyed  by  means  that 


RUINS  OP  AN  INCA  TEMPLE. 


430 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


they  taunted  the  conquistadors  who  tried  to  overthrow  them. 
But  the  Spaniards  stripped  them  of  their  treasures,  murdered 
their  inmates,  and  destroyed  everything  that  could  not  with¬ 
stand  their  power. 


CONVENT  OF  SANTA  DOMINGO,  CCZCO. 


The  riches  of  Peru  and  Bolivia  have  been  their  curse  from 
the  time  when  Pizarro  invaded  the  continent  to  the  plunder 
of  their  nitrate  deposits  by  Chili.  It  is  true  that  few  coun¬ 
tries  have  suffered  from  such  an  evil,  but  it  is  nevertheless 
a  fact  that  the  wealth  of  these  republics  has  been  the  cause 
of  their  disasters.  For  three  hundred  yearn  the  people  sat 
with  folded  hands,  and  enjoyed  the  profits  of  the  devel¬ 
opment  of  their  natural  resources  by  foreigners,  and  now, 
stripped  of  them,  sit  impoverished,  mourning  the  departure 
of  their  prosperity. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


431 


Just  how  much  plunder  Pizarro  got  in  his  raids  upon  the 
Incas  is  not  known,  and  cannot  be  estimated,  but  millions 
went  to  the  King  of  Spain  as  his  twenty  per  cent. ;  the 
Catholic  Church  got  millions  more  as  her  share ;  Sir  Francis 
Drake,  John  Hawkins,  and  other  pirates  got  away  with  an 
immense  amount  of  gold  and  silver;  and  the  quantity  ex¬ 
pended  in  the  erection  of  churches,  convents,  monasteries,  and 
palaces  by  the  viceroys  is  incalculable.  History  asserts  that 
ninety  millions  of  dollars’  worth  of  precious  metals  was  torn 
from  the  Inca  temples,. and  the  faithful  subjects  of  Atahualpa 
filled  the  room  in  which 
he  was  imprisoned  with 
gold,  in  their  endeavor 
to  satisfy  the  avarice  of 
the  invaders.  Prescott 
and  Pobertson  and  oth¬ 
er  historians  tell  fabu¬ 
lous  stories  of  the  wealth 
of  the  Incas,  and  we 
know  it  was  enough  to 
restore  financial  pros¬ 
perity  to  Spain,  and  to 
give  every  cutthroat  who 
came  to  the  coast  a  fort¬ 
une. 

The  amount  of  money 
made  by  Peru  from  her 
guano  deposits  cannot 
be  estimated  any  more 
accurately  than  by  the 
plunder  stolen  from  the  Incas.  The  exports  have  continued 
from  1846  to  the  present  day,  and  the  annual  shipments  have 
amounted  to  millions  of  tons,  valued  between  twenty  and 
thirty  million  dollars,  and  this  to  the  benefit  of  a  State  whose 
population  has  never  reached  two  millions,  and  three-fourths 
of  which  were  Indians  who  had  no  share  in  its  profits.  The 
exnausted  lands  of  the  Old  World  required  this  manure  to  re- 


WHAT  THE  SPANIARDS  LEFT. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


vive  them,  and  their  owners  paid  high  prices  for  what  cost 
Peru  nothing.  The  result  of  this  revenue  was  the  continua¬ 
tion  of  the  extravagance  among  the  people  which  was  prac¬ 
tised  by  their  forefathers  when  the  mountains  poured  out 


WHERE  THE  GUANO  LIES. 


streams  of  silver.  It  was  an  epidemic  of  riches,  and  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  of  Peru,  instead  of  wisely  hoarding  its  source  of 
wealth  and  protecting  it,  plunged  into  a  system  of  reckless 
expenditure,  until  the  end  of  the  war  found  its  revenues  cut 
J  and  the  country  burdened  with  a  debt  of  two  hundred  and 

fifty  million  dollars  which  it  never  can  pay. 

But  even  if  Peru  and  Bolivia  have  been  robbed  of  all  then 
cmano,  the  deposits  of  nitrate  of  soda  in  the  deserts  along 
their  coasts  would  have  made  them  rich  again ;  but  Chili  has 
stolen  these  also.  The  whole  coast,  from  the  twenty-third  to 
the  twenty-fifth  parallel  of  latitude,  appears  to  be  one  solid 
mass  of  this  valuable  mineral,  fit  for  a  hundred  different  uses^ 
and  worth  in  the  market  from  forty  to  sixty  dollars  a  ton.  It 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


433 


pebbles.  These  are  lifted  by  elevators  into  great  vats,  where 
it  is  boiled  until  dissolved  in  ordinary  sea-water.  Then  the 
solution  is  run  off  into  a  series  of  shallow  iron  vats  exposed 
to  the  air,  which,  being  moistureless,  and  heated  by  constant 
sunshine,  causes  rapid  evaporation.  The  salt  from  the  water 
28 


was  discovered  in  1833  by  an  accident,  the  hero  of  the  dis¬ 
covery  being  a  forlorn  old  Englishman  by  the  name  of  George 
Smith.  There  is  no  telhng  how  much  lies  in  the  mines,  but 
it  is  the  opinion  of  those  who  have  explored  the  country  that 
at  the  present  rate  of  excavation  it  will  take  eight  or  ten 
centuries  to  dig  it  away. 

Under  the  sand  of  this  desert,  which  drifts  before  the  wind 
like  snow,  nature  has  laid  the  bed  of  nitrate.  No  one  knows 
how  it  was  formed,  and  man  has  not  attempted  to  measure 
its  extent.  The  sand  is  first  shovelled  off,  and  then  a  crust  of 
sun-baked  clay  from  four  to  twelve  inches  thick  is  removed. 
This  discloses  a  bed  of  white  material  that  looks  like  melting- 
marble,  full  of  moisture,  and  is  as  soft  as  cheese.  The  strata 
is  often  four  or  five  feet  thick,  and  averages  two  or  three  feet. 
It  is  broken  up  by  crow-bars  and  shovelled  into  carts,  then 
taken  to  crushers,  which  grind  it  up  into  particles  as  large  as 


A  NITRATE  MINING  TOWN. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


mixed  with  the  nitrate  causes  crystallization,  and  after  a  cer¬ 
tain  period  of  exposure  to  the  air  and  sun  the  vats  are  found 
to  be  covered  upon  the  bottom  and  sides  with  white  sparkling 
crystals,  like  alabaster,  under  a  yellowish  liquor.  This  liquor 
is  carefully  drawn  off,  for  it  is  even  more  valuable  than  the 
saltpetre,  and  is  conducted  by  pipes  to  another  crucible,  where 
it  is  boiled  and  chemically  treated  until  it  produces  the  iodine 
of  commerce,  useful  for  a  hundred  medical  and  chemical  pur¬ 
poses,  and  costing  as  much  per  ounce  as  the  saltpetre  brings 
per  hundred-weight.  The  liquor  having  been  withdrawn,  the 
saltpetre  is  shovelled  upon  drying-boards,  where  it  is  exposed 
to  the  sun  for  a  while,  then  put  into  bags  and  shipped  to  Eu¬ 
rope  and  America.  It  is  graded  like  wheat  and  corn,  accorc  - 
in o-  to  quality.  The  highest  grade  goes  to  the  powder-nulls, 
the  next  to  the  chemical  works,  and  the  third  to  the  fertilizer 
factories,  where  it  is  made  into  manure.  The  iodine  is  packed 
in  little  casks,  and  covered  with  green  hides,  which  shrink 
with  drying  until  they  are  as  tight  as  a  drum-head,  and  keep 
out  moisture.  It  was  these  nitrate  of  soda  deposits  tha 
caused  the  late  war  between  Chili  and  Peru. 

After  the  independence  of  South  America,  when  the  sev¬ 
eral  republics  were  being  divided,  Bolivia  was  given  a  little 
strip  of  land  between  Peru  and  Chili  in  order  that  she  might 
have  a  pathway  to  the  sea.  It  lay  between  the  twenty-third 
and  the  twenty-fifth  parallels,  and  was  so  recognized  on  all  the 
maps  of  Chili,  as  well  as  those  of  other  nations.  It  was  a 
barren,  waterless  desert,  worthless  in  every  respect,  as  was 
orio-inallv  supposed,  but  some  years  ago  the  rich  deposits  of 
silver  and  nitrate  of  soda  were  discovered.  When  their  value 
became  known,  Chili  suddenly  ascertained  that  under  some  an¬ 
cient  right  this  strip  of  territory  belonged  to  her,  and  kindly 
offered  to  divide  it  with  Bolivia  in  such  a  way  as  to  leave  the 
silver  and  soda  on  the  Chilian  side.  Bolivia  of  course  re¬ 
sisted,  and  having  a  treaty  of  offence  and  defence  with  Peru, 
called  upon  the  latter  nation  to  assist  in  the  defence  of  her 
rio-hts.  This  was  the  real  cause  of  the  war.  The  ostensible 
excuse  for  it  was  that  Bolivia  charged  an  export  duty  of  ten 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


435 


cents  a  hundred-weight  on  nitrate  exported.  This  the  Chili¬ 
ans  deemed  excessive,  and  sent  a  fleet  to  defend  her  citizens 
in  refusing  to  pay  it.  Now  that  she  has  secured  the  territory 
and  the  mines,  she  charges  one  dollar  and  twenty-five  cents  a 
hundred-weight  export  duty  on  the  same  article  at  the  same 
place,  and  thinks  people  impertinent  when  they  complain. 
The  results  of  the  war  are  that  Bolivia  has  not  only  lost  her 
seaports  and  her  nitrate,  but  Peru  has  lost  all  her  guano  and 
a  large  portion  of  her  richest  territory,  while  Chili  is  so  much 
the  richer. 


GUANO  ISLANDS. 


At  one  time  Peru  might  have  prevented  the  invasion  of  her 
territory,  and  caused  the  entire  army  of  Chili  to  perish,  but 
the  instincts  of  noble  generosity  and  the  unwritten  law  of 
common  humanity  were  observed.  If  Peru  had  been  as  mer¬ 
ciless  as  Chili  the  struggle  would  have  been  shortened  and 
the  result  would  have  been  different.  Along  the  coast  from 
Guayaquil,  Ecuador,  to  Coquimbo,  Chili,  a  distance  of  more 
than  two  thousand  miles,  stretches  a  desert  on  which  a  drop 


436 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


of  rain  never  fell.  Occasionally  a  stream,  born  of  a  union  be¬ 
tween  the  burning  sun  and  the  eternal  snows  of  the  Andes, 
finds  it  way  to  the  sea,  bringing  nourishment  to  the  soil  and 
making  a  little  oasis  where  men  can  live.  But  unless  the  wa¬ 
ter-supply  is  very  great — and  it  is  only  so  occasionally — the 
stream  is  swallowed  by  the  thirsty  sands  and  absorbed  by  the 
atmosphere,  which  is  so  dry  that  nothing  ever  decays,  and 
causes  more  rapid  evaporation  than  is  known  elsewhere.  In 
this  desert  lie  the  nitrate  mines,  and  towns  have  sprung  up 
around  them  the  inhabitants  of  which  are  supplied  with  water 
by  artificial  means.  Salt  water  is  turned  into  fresh  by  means 
of  enormous  condensers,  and  a  supply  is  kept  in  vast  iron  res¬ 
ervoirs,  from  which  it  is  sold  to  the  people  at  a  price  about 
the  same  as  we  pay  for  beer.  At  the  saloons  one  can  get  a 

•rlass  of  filtered  ice-water  for  live  cents ;  at  the  reservoirs  a 
tv 

bucket  of  warm,  nasty  stuff  is  sold  for  ten. 

If  you  ask  a  learned  man  why  it  never  rains  there,  he  will 
say  that  the  clouds  are  deprived  of  all  their  moisture  when 
they  cross  the  mountains  from  the  eastward,  and  when  they 
come  up  from  the  westward  ocean  are  at  once  sucked  dry  by 
the  heat  that  radiates  from  the  sun-baked  sands.  Occasional^ 
along  the  coast  are  found  immense  cemeteries  in  which  the 
Incas  buried  their  dead ;  and  the  contents  of  the  graves  are 
as  well  preserved  as  if  their  age  were  counted  by  weeks  in¬ 
stead  of  centuries.  The  most  interesting  and  extensive  of  the 
burial  grounds  is  at  Pachacamac,  south  of  Lima,  in  Peru, 
where  millions  of  bodies  lie,  often  in  three  stratas,  and  venT 
generally  in  two.  Near  this  place  was  the  famous  temple 
dedicated  to  Pachacamac,  the  chief  divinity  of  the  Incas,  and 
whom  they  acknowledged  as  the  creator  of  the  world.  It  was 
the  Mecca  of  that  day,  and  each  believer  was  expected  to  visit 
it  at  least  once  in  his  life.  The  pilgrims  came  from  all  parts 
of  the  empire,  bringing  votive-offerings,  which  made  the  tem¬ 
ple  very  rich ;  and  Pizan’o  is  said  to  have  obtained  a  vast  quan¬ 
tity  of  plunder  from  it.  Around  the  temple  arose  a  large  city 
of  monasteries  to  accommodate  the  priests  and  devotees,  and 
inns  to  shelter  the  pilgrims ;  but  the  place  is  in  ruins  now. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


437 


At  one  of  these  towns  the  whole  army  of  Chili  was  concen¬ 
trated — forty  thousand  men — preparing  for  the  invasion  of 
Peru.  The  Peruvian  gun-boat  Huascar  (pronounced  Wascar) 
came  into  the  harbor,  and  with  a  few  shots  might  have  de¬ 
stroyed  the  reservoirs  and  the  condensing  establishments,  and 
left  these  forty  thousand  men  to  die  of  thirst,  for  there  was 
no  fresh  water  within  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles  of  them. 


ACROSS  THE  CONTINENT. 


But  the  commander  of  the  Huascar  had  a  heart.  He  was  a 
noble,  generous  German— Admiral  Grau — and  he  sent  word 
to  the  Ckilla.no  commander  that  he  presented  his  army  with 


438 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


their  lives.  He  said  he  would  not  attack  defenceless  men, 
and  sailed  off  in  pursuit  of  some  Chillano  gain -boats  which 
had  run  away  when  they  saw  the  Uuascar  coming. 


A  STATION  ON  THE  ROAD. 


The  present  terminus  of  the  Bolivia  railroad  is  at  Puno, 
a  little  town  of  five  thousand  inhabitants,  at  an  elevation  of 
twelve  thousand  five  hundred  feet ;  but  it  is  proposed  to  extend 
it  farther  up  the  valley,  through  another  pass  of  the  Andes, 
and  then  down  the  eastern  slopes  to  the  head  of  navigation 
on  the  Amazon— neither  a  difficult  nor  an  expensive  under¬ 
taking.  An  expedition  has  recently  started  from  Buenos 
Avres  to  make  an  exploration  from  the  head  of  navigation  on 
tlie  Paraguay  River  into  the  mountains  of  Bolivia,  for  the 
purpose  of  constructing  a  cart-road,  and  ultimately  a  railroad 
to  connect  the  mining  regions  of  the  latter  republic  with  the 
Atlantic  ports  of  the  continent,  and  great  hopes  are  enter¬ 
tained  of  its  success.  The  little  town  of  Puno  owes  its  origin 
to  the  rich  mines  that  surround  it,  and  some  of  them  are  pro¬ 
ducing  generously.  It  has  a  small  amount  of  othei  commeice 
in  hides  and  wool,  coca-leaves,  and  cinchona.  It  is  the  cen¬ 
tre  of  the  alpaca  wool  trade,  and  considerable  is  exported. 

To  reach  La  Paz,  the  capital  of  Bolivia,  from  Puno  one 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


439 


must  cross  Lake  Titicaca,  sailing  its  full  length,  ancl,  reaching 
its  southern  shores,  mount  a  mule  and  ride  twenty-five  miles 
along  the  ancient  highway  of  the  Incas,  a  wonderful  road, 
nearly  four  thousand  miles  long,  built  eight  hundred  years  or 
more  ago,  and  still  in  a  good  state  of  preservation,  notwith¬ 
standing  the  neglect  of  the  Spaniards  to  keep  it  in  repair. 

Perhaps  the  most  glorious  monuments  of  the  civilization  of 
the  Incas  were  the  public  or  royal  roads,  extending  from  the 
capital  to  the  remotest  parts  of  the  empire.  Their  remains 
are  still  most  impressive,  both  from  their  extent  and  the 
amount  of  labor  necessarily  involved  in  their  construction, 
and  in  contemplating  them  we  know  not  which  to  admire 
most — the  scope  of  their  projectors,  the  power  and  constancy 
of  the  Incas  who  carried  them  to  a  completion,  or  the  patience 
of  the  people  who  constructed  them  under  all  the  obstacles 
resulting  from  the  topography  of  the  country  and  from  im¬ 
perfect  means  of  execution.  They  built  these  roads  in  des¬ 
erts,  among  moving  sands  reflecting  the  fierce  rays  of  a  trop¬ 
ical  sun ;  they  broke  down  rocks,  graded  precipices,  levelled 
hills,  and  filled  up  valleys  without  the  assistance  of  powder 
or  of  instruments  of  iron ;  they  crossed  lakes,  marshes,  and 
rivers,  and  without  the  aid  of  the  compass  followed  direct 
courses  in  forests  of  eternal  shade.  They  did,  in  short,  what 
even  now,  with  all  of  modern  knowledge  and  means  of  action, 
would  be  worthy  of  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the  globe. 
One  of  the  principal  of  these  roads  extended  from  Cuzco  to 
the  sea,  and  the  other,  which  is  followed  to  La  Paz,  ran  along 
the  crest  of  the  Cordilleras  from  one  end  of  the  empire  to 
the  other,  their  aggregate  lengths,  with  their  branches,  being 
about  four  thousand  miles.  Modern  travellers  compare  them, 
in  respdct  of  structure,  to  the  best  works  of  the  kind  in  any 
part  of  the  world.  In  ascending  mountains  too  steep  to  ad¬ 
mit  of  grading,  broad  steps  were  cut  in  the  solid  rocks,  while 
the  ravines  and  hollows  were  filled  with  heavy  embankments, 
flanked  with  parapets,  and  planted  with  shade-trees  and  fra¬ 
grant  shrubs.  They  were  from  eighteen  to  twenty-five  Cas¬ 
tilian  feet  broad,  and  were  paved  with  immense  blocks  of 


440 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


stone.  At  regular  distances  on  these  roads  tambos — build¬ 
ings  for  the  accommodation  of  travellers — were  erected.  To 
these  conveniences  were  added  the  establishment  of  a  sys¬ 
tem  of  posts,  by  which  messages  could  be  transmitted  from 


CIIASQUIS  AT  REST. 


one  extremity  of  the  Incas’  dominions  to  the  other  in  an  in¬ 
credibly  short  time.  The  service  of  the  posts  was  performed 
by  runners — for  the  Peruvians  possessed  no  domestic  animals 
swifter  of  foot  than  man — stationed  in  small  buildings,  like¬ 
wise  erected  at  easy  distances  from  each  other  all  along  the 
principal  roads.  These  messengers,  or  chasquis,  as  they  were 
termed,  wore  a  peculiar  uniform,  and  were  trained  to  their 
particular  vocation.  Each  had  his  allotted  station,  between 
which  and  the  next  it  was  his  duty  to  speed  along  at  a  cer¬ 
tain  pace  with  the  message,  dispatch,  or  parcel  intrusted  to 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


441 


his  care.  On  drawing  near  to  the  station  at  which  he  had 
to  transmit  the  message  to  the  next  courier,  who  was  then 
to  carry  it  farther,  he  was  to  give  a  signal  of  his  approach, 
in  order  that  the  other  might  be  in  readiness  to  receive  the 
missive  and  no  time  be  lost;  and  thus  it  is  said  that  mes¬ 
sages  were  forwarded  at  the  rate  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 
miles  a  day. 

The  bridges  constructed  by  the  Peruvians  were  exceedingly 
simple,  but  were  well  adapted  for  crossing  those  rapid  streams 
which  rush  down  from  the  Andes  and  defy  the  skill  of  the  mod¬ 
ern  engineer.  They  consisted  of  strong  cables  of  the  cabuya, 
or  of  twisted  rawhide  stretched  from  one  bank  to  the  other, 


CHASQUIS  ASLEEP  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS. 


something  after  the  style  of  the  suspension -bridges  of  our 
times.  Poles  were  lashed  across  transversely,  covered  with 
branches,  and  these  were  again  covered  with  earth  and  stones, 
so  as  to  form  a  solid  floor.  Other  cables  extended  along  the 
sides,  which  were  interwoven  with  limbs  of  trees,  forming  a 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


442 


kind  of  wicker  balustrade.  In  some  cases  the  mode  of  transit 
was  in  a  species  of  basket  or  car,  suspended  on  a  single  cable, 
and  drawn  from  side  to  side  with  ropes.  It  would  appear  at 
first  glance  that  bridges  of  this  description  could  not  be  very 
lasting,  yet  a  few  still  exist  which  are  said  to  have  been  con¬ 
structed  by  the  Incas  more  than  four  hundred  years  ago. 


A  BIT  OF  LA  PAZ. 


The  modern  inhabitants  of  some  parts  of  Peru,  Bolivia,  and 
Chili  still  use  the  same  means  of  crossing  their  torrent  rivers. 

The  city  of  La  Paz  has  about  seventy  thousand  inhabitants, 
mostly  Aymara  Indians,  poor,  degraded,  and  ignorant.  The 
full  name  of  the  place  is  La  Paz  de  Avacucho,  and  it  means 
“  the  peace  of  Ayacucho,”  being  so  christened  in  1825,  to  com¬ 
memorate  the  victory  which  established  the  independence  of 
Bolivia  from  the  hated  crown  of  Spain.  At  that  time  the 
republic  was  a  part  of  the  old  Province  of  Peru,  and  a  sepa¬ 
rate  State  was  founded  by  Bolivar,  the  Yenezuelan  Liberator 
of  the  Continent,  who  gave  freedom  to  these  people  as  lie  did 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


443 


to  his  own  countrymen,  and  the  new  republic  was  christened 
in  his  honor.  La  Paz  was  originally  called  Huestra  Sen  ora 
de  la  Paz — “the  peace  of  the  Virgin ” — by  Alonzo  de  Men¬ 
doza,  who  founded  it  in  1548.  It  is  thirteen  thousand  feet 
above  tide-water,  and  is  surrounded  by  a  group  of  gigantic 
mountains,  the  most  notable  of  which  is  the  volcano  Illiniani, 
twenty-one  thousand  three  hundred  feet  high.  Through  the 
city  runs  the  river  Chiquiapo,  a  noble  mountain-stream,  which 
is  crossed  by  a  number  of  fine  old  bridges.  The  streets  are 
narrow,  irregular,  and  uneven,  being  paved  with  stone,  and 
having  narrow  sidewalks,  scarcely  broad  enough  for  two 
people  to  pass.  The  town  resembles  all  others  of  Spanish 
construction,  except  that  the  houses  are  mostly  built  of  stone 
instead  of  adobe,  the  walls  being  massive  and  enduring,  and 
•in  some  instances  ornamented  with  carved  stone  or  stucco¬ 
work.  The  cathedral  is  large  and  grand,  the  front  being  hand¬ 
somely  carved,  and  in  a  niche  over  the  entrance  stands  a  mar¬ 
ble  image  of  the  Virgin,  which  was  presented  to  the  city  by 


THE  CATHEDRAL  AT  LA  PAZ. 


Charles  of  Spain,  and  transported  from  the  seaboard  at  an 
enormous  cost.  The  cathedral  is  built  entirely  of  stone,  and 
was  over  forty  years  in  course  of  erection,  hundreds  of  men 
being  constantly  employed.  Ho  derricks  or  other  machinery 
were  used  in  its  construction,  but  the  walls  were  built  in  a 


444 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


curious  way.  As  fast  as  a  tier  of  stone  was  laid,  the  earth 
was  banked  up  against  it  inside  and  outside,  and  upon  this 
inclined  plane  the  stones  for  the  next  tier  were  rolled  into 
their  places.  Then  more  earth  was  thrown  on,  and  the  process 
repeated  until,  when  the  walls  were  finished,  the  whole  build- 
ins'  was  immersed  in  a  mountain  of  dirt.  This  was  allowed 
to  remain  until  the  roof  was  laid,  when  the  earth  was  carried 
away  upon  the  backs  of  llamas  and  men.  It  is  said  to  have 
taken  thirteen  years  to  clear  out  the  inside  of  the  building,  as 
the  earth  could  only  be  taken  away  through  the  narrow  win¬ 
dows  and  doors.  There  are  fourteen  other  churches  of  con¬ 
siderable  size,  and  several  large  monasteries,  which  are  now 
used  for  military  barracks  and  schools.  A  university  is  sus¬ 
tained  by  the  Government,  and  there  is  a  nominal  tree-school 
system,  but  education  is  at  a  low  ebb. 

In  the  centre  of  the  city  runs  the  Alameda,  a  public  prom¬ 
enade  which  is  frequented  by  all  classes  of  citizens,  and  dur¬ 
ing  the  twilight  hours  is  quite  gay.  The  cemetery  is  very 
extensive,  and  one  of  the  finest  in  South  America.  4 here  are 
few  stores  or  shops,  most  of  the  trading  being  done  in  the 
market-places,  where  all  things  are  sold,  and  by  peddlers  who 
go  through  the  city  with  baskets  of  provisions  and  notions 
upon  their  heads,  crying  their  wares.  The  way  customers  call 
street-venders  is  worth  noticing  and  imitating.  They  step  to 
the  door  or  open  a  window,  and  give  utterance  to  a  short 
sound  resembling  shir-r-r-r-r — something  between  a  hiss  and 
the  exclamation  used  to  chase  away  fowls — and  it  is  singular 
what  a  distance  it  can  be  heard.  If  the  peddler  is  in  sight, 
his  attention  is  at  once  arrested ;  he  turns,  and  comes  direct 
to  the  caller,  now  guided  by  a  signal  addressed  to  his  eyes — 
closing  the  fingers  of  the  right  hand  two  or  three  times,  with 
the  palm  downward,  as  if  grasping  something— a  sign  in  uni¬ 
versal  use,  and  signifying  “  Come."  There  is  here  no  bawl¬ 
ing  after  people  in  the  streets,  for  in  this  quiet  and  ingenious 
way  all  classes  communicate  with  passing  friends  or  others 
with  whom  they  wish  to  speak.  The  practice  dates,  I  believe, 
from  classical  times.  A  curious  custom  is  the  peddling  of 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


445 


fuel  through  the  streets.  Llamas  are  loaded  with  their  own 
excrement,  which  when  dried  in  the  sun  is  called  taquia,  and 
sold  by  the  basketful.  It  is  used  by  all  classes  for  cooking. 

The  mineral  wealth  of  Bolivia  has  been  proverbial  almost 
from  time  immemorial.  The  silver-mines  of  Potosi  have  long 
been  celebrated  as  perhaps  the  richest  deposit  of  silver  ore  in 
the  world.  From  the  year  1545,  when  they  were  discovered, 
to  the  year  1864,  these  mines,  according  to  official  data,  pro¬ 
duced  the  enormous  sum  of  $2,904,902,690  of  our  money. 


AN  ANCIENT  BRIDGE  IN  LA  PAZ. 


Besides  Potosi  there  are  other  rich  silver-mines,  and  many 
large  deposits  of  gold.  The  great  want  of  these  mines  is 
skilled  labor  and  improved  modern  machinery.  In  early 
days  the  Indians  were  forced  to  work  them  against  their 
will,  and  were  treated  with  great  harshness  and  cruelty. 
The  historical  student  will  call  to  mind  the  efforts  of  philan¬ 
thropists  to  mitigate  their  sufferings.  When  their  labor 
could  no  longer  be  controlled,  the  mines  fell  into  comparative 


446 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


decay.  The  Indians  will  not  work  them  with  energy  and 
industry  to-day.  They  doubtless  hold  in  memory  through 
their  traditions  the  wrongs  indicted  on  their  ancestors  by 
merciless  taskmasters.  If  worked  by  experienced  miners, 

with  all  the  improved  mod¬ 
ern  machinery,  the  gold  and 
silver  deposits  would  yield 
as  abundant  returns,  per¬ 
haps,  as  in  the  days  of  their 
early  history.  Recently  a 
party  of  Californians  have 

trone  into  the  country  and 
© 

taken  charge  of  a  gold-mine. 
If  a  good  many  others  would 
follow  them,  mining  in  Bo¬ 
livia  would  experience  a  re¬ 
naissance  that  would  remind 
the  Bolivians  of  the  El  Do¬ 
rado  of  the  olden  time. 

The  most  useful  to  man¬ 
kind  of  all  the  natural  prod¬ 
ucts  of  South  America  was 
quinine,  the  drug  made  from 
the  bark  of  the  cinchona- 
tree,  which  was  discovered 
in  Bolivia  by  a  Franciscan 
friar  in  the  early  days  of 
the  Conquest,  and  was  called 
cinchona  in  honor  of  the 
Dountess  of  Conchona,  whose  husband  was  the  "V  iceroy  of 
Peru.  She  introduced  it  into  Spain  as  a  remedy  for  fe\eis, 
ind  there  is  no  drug  in  the  catalogue  that  has  been  used  in 
mch  quantities  or  with  such  success  by  suffering  mankind. 
The  entire  supply  formerly  came  from  Peru  and  Bolivia,  and 
it  was  known  as  Peruvian  bark,  but  afterwards  the  forests 
alone  the  entire  chain  of  the  Andes  were  found  to  contain 
it,  and  it  furnished  one  of  the  chief  articles  of  export  from 


A  BOLIVIAN  ELEVATOR. 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


447 


South  America  for  three  centuries.  The  supply  has  been 
greatly  diminished  by  the  destruction  of  the  trees,  as  it  was 
the  habit  formerly  to  cut  down  the  trunk,  and  strip  it  as  well 
as  the  branches  of  the  bark.  Nowadays  the  forests  are  pro¬ 
tected  by  law,  and  the  trees  are  allowed  to  stand,  a  portion 
of  the  bark  being  stripped  off  each  year,  which  nature  re¬ 
places  again. 


A  BOLIVIAN  CAVALRYMAN. 


England,  with  that  provident  foresight  which  characterizes 
much  of  her  political  economy,  several  years  ago  sent  agents 
into  Ecuador,  Peru,  and  Bolivia,  under  the  direction  of  the 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


448 


celebrated  botanist  Mr.  Spruce,  and  made  a  collection  of  cin¬ 
chona  plants,  which  were  taken  to  Java,  Ceylon,  and  India, 
and  there  have  been  transplanted  and  cultivated  with  great 
success  and  profit.  It  is  found  that  under  proper  treatment 
the  tree  produces  a  very  much  greater  amount  of  quinine,  of 
a  much  superior  quality,  and  at  less  cost  than  the  bai’k  can  be 
gathered  in  the  mountains  of  South  America,  so  that  ship¬ 
ments  have  almost  entirely  ceased,,  and  the  market  receives 
its  supply  from  the  British  possessions. 


A  HOME  IN  TOE  ANDES. 


Another  plant  is  coming  into  prominence,  and  its  export 
has  very  largely  increased  within  the  last  few  yearn.  This  is 
the  coca,  from  which  cocoaine  and  other  medicinal  and  nerve 
stimulants  are  made.  In  the  valleys  of  the  Andes  there  are, 
and  have  been  from  time  immemorial,  extensive  plantations 
of  the  coca  shrub.  It  is  indigenous  in  these  regions,  but  the 
natives  of  Peru  and  Bolivia  cultivate  the  plant  in  terraces 
which  are  likened  to  the  vineyards  of  Tuscany  and  the  Holy 
Land.  Erythroxylon  coca  is  allied  to  the  common  flax,  and 
forms,  says  Dr.  Johnston,  a  shrub  of  six  or  eight  feet,  resem¬ 
bling  our  blackthorn,  with  small  white  flowers  and  bright 
green  leaves.  The  leaves,  of  which  there  may  be  three  or 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


449 


four  crops  in  the  year,  are  collected  by  the  women  and  chil¬ 
dren,  and  dried  in  the  sun,  after  which  they  are  ready  for  use, 
and  form  the  usual  money  exchange  in  some  districts,  the 
workmen  being  paid  in  coca-leaves.  Among  the  Peruvians  and 
Bolivians  the  coca-leaves  are  rolled  with  a  little  unslaked 
lime  into  a  ball  ( acullico )  and  chewed  in  the  mouth  Coca¬ 
chewing  resembles  in  some  respects  the  smoking  of  opium. 
Both  must  be  taken  apart,  and  with  deliberation.  The  coca 
chewer,  three  or  four  times  in  the  day,  retires  to  a  secluded 
spot,  lays  down  his  burden,  and  stretches  himself  perhaps  be¬ 
neath  a  tree.  Slowly  from  the  chuspa,  or  little  pouch,  which 
is  ever  at  his  girdle,  the  leaves  and  the  lime  are  brought 
forth.  The  ball  is  formed  and  chewed  for  perhaps  fifteen  or 
thirty  minutes,  and  then  the  toiler  rises  refreshed  as  quietly 
as  he  lay  down,  and  returns  to  that  monotonous  round  of  la¬ 
bor  in  which  the  coca  is  his  only  and  much-prized  distrac¬ 
tion.  Some  take  it  to  excess,  and  to  these  the  name  of  co- 
quero  is  given.  This  is  particularly  common  among  white 
Peruvians  of  good  family,  and  hence  the  name  “  Blanco  Co- 
quero  ”  in  that  country  is  a  term  of  reproach  equivalent  to 
our  “  habitual  drunkard.”  The  Indians  regard  the  coca  with 
extreme  reverence.  Yon  Tschudi,  the  Austrian  scientist,  who 
made  the  most  thorough  study  of  the  ancient  customs  of  the 
Incas,  says,  “During  divine  worship  the  priests  chewed  coca- 
leaves,  and  unless  they  were  supplied  with  them  it  was  be¬ 
lieved  that  the  favor  of  the  gods  could  not  be  propitiated. 
It  was  also  deemed  necessary  that  the  supplicator  for  Divine 
grace  should  approach  the  priests  with  an  acullico  in  his 
mouth.  It  is  believed  that  any  business  undertaken  without 
the  benediction  of  coca-leaves  could  not  prosper,  and  to  the 
shrub  itself  worship  was  rendered.  During  an  interval  of 
more  than  three  hundred  years  Christianity  has  not  been  able 
to  subdue  this  deep-rooted  idolatry,  for  everywhere  we  find 
traces  of  belief  in  the  mysterious  powers  of  this  plant.  The 
excavators  in  the  mines  of  Cerro  del  Pasco  throw  chewed  coca 
upon  hard  veins  of  metal,  in  the  belief  that  it  softens  the  ore 
and  renders  it  more  easy  to  work.  The  Indians  even  at  the 
29 


450 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


present  time  put  co¬ 
ca  -  leaves  into  the 
mouths  of  dead  per¬ 
sons,  in  order  to  se¬ 
cure  them  a  favora¬ 
ble  reception  on  their 
entrance  into  anoth¬ 
er  world,  and  when 
a  Peruvian  on  a  jour¬ 
ney  falls  in  with  a 
mummy,  he,  with 
timid  reverence,  pre¬ 
sents  to  it  some  coca- 
leaves  as  his  pious  of¬ 
fering. 

The  coca-plant  re¬ 
sembles  tea  and  hops 
in  the  nature  of  its 
native  principles,  al¬ 
though  differing  en¬ 
tirely  from  them  in 
its  effects.  Intheco- 
queros  the  latter  are 
not  invit  ing.  “  They 
are,”  says  Dr.  A  on 
Tschudi,  ‘*a  bad 
breath,  pale  lips  and 
gums,  greenish  and 
stumpy  teeth,  and  an 
ufflv  black  mark  at 
the  angles  of  the 
mouth.  The  in¬ 
veterate  coquero  is 
known  at  the  first 
glance ;  his  unsteady 
gait,  his  yellow  skin, 
his  dim  and  sunken 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


451 


eyes  encircled  by  a  purple  ring,  his  quivering  lips,  and  his 
general  apathy  all  bear  evidence  of  the  baneful  effect  of 
the  coca-juice  when  taken  in  excess.  The  general  influence 
of  moderate  doses  is  gently  soothing  and  stimulating ;  but 
coca  has  in  addition  a  special  and  remarkable  power  in  en¬ 
abling  those  who  consume  it  to  endure  sustained  labor  in  the 
absence  of  other  food. 


CUMBERLAND  BAY. 


Down  the  coast,  just  before  reaching  the  city  of  Valparaiso, 
is  an  island  which  possesses  an  interest  for  every  one  who  has 
been  a  boy.  Occasionally  an  excursion  visits  the  place,  and 
the  Englishmen,  who  constitute  a  large  fraction  of  the  popu¬ 
lation  of  V alparaiso,  with  what  few  Americans  there  are,  go 
over  to  spend  a  day  or  two,  and  renew  their  youth.  It  is 
the  island  of  Juan  Fernandez,  where  Robinson  Crusoe  and 
his  man  Friday,  “  who  kept  things  tidy,”  had  the  experi¬ 
ence  that  has  given  the  world  of  boys  as  much  enjoyment 
as  any  that  ever  came  from  a  book.  There  was  a  Robinson 
Crusoe — there  is  not  a  doubt  of  it — and  there  was  a  man  Friday 
too,  and  the  island  stands  to-day  exactly  as  it  is  described  in 


452 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  narrative  ;  but  the  surprising  adventures  of  Mr.  Crusoe  as 
therein  related  do  not  correspond  exactly  with  the  local  tra¬ 
ditions  of  the  story.  The  island  was  a  favorite  stopping-place 
for  vessels  in  the  South  Seas,  as  it  has  good  ship-timber,  plenty 
of  excellent  water,  abounds  in  fruits,  goats,  rabbits,  and  other 
flesh  for  food,  and  the  rocks  on  the  coast  are  covered  with 
lobsters,  shrimps,  and  crayfish.  It  was  a  popular  resort  foi 
buccaneers  also,  who  ran  into  a  well-protected  harbor  to  repair 
damages  and  get  provisions.  Juan  Fernandez,  a  famous  Span¬ 
ish  navigator,  discovered  it  in  1563,  and  the  King  of  Spain 
o-ave  him  a  patent  to  the  island,  but  as  he  never  occupied  it 
his  title  lapsed.  In  1709  the  Scotchman  Selkirk,  or  Selcraig, 
became  mutinous  on  board  the  ship  Cinque  Ports ,  and  had  to 
choose  between  being  hung  at  the  yard-arm  or  put  ashore  at 
Juan  Fernandez  alone.  He  took  the  latter  alternative,  am 
wJs  left  on  the  rocks  with  his  sailor’s  kit  and  a  small  supply 
of  provisions.  To  his  surprise,  after  he  had  been  on  the  island 
a  few  days,  he  found  a  companion  in  an  Indian  from  the  Mos¬ 
quito  Coast  of  Central  America,  who  some  years  before  had 
come  down  on  the  pirate  Damphier,  and  going  ashore  on  a 
hunting  expedition,  was  lost  and  abandoned  by  his  comrades. 
This  was  the  man  Friday.  Some  years  after,  Selkirk  and 
the  Indian  were  rescued  by  Captain  Rogers,  of  an  English 
merchant-ship,  and  taken  to  Southampton,  where  the  Scotch¬ 
man  told  his  story  to  Daniel  Defoe,  and  it  got  into  print,  with 

some  romantic  exaggeration.  . 

The  island  is  accurately  described  in  the  story,  and  the  vis¬ 
itor  who  is  familiar  with  “Robinson  Crusoe”  can  find  the 
cave  the  mountain-paths,  and  other  haunts  of  the  hero  with¬ 
out  difficulty ;  but  Defoe  has  located  it  in  the  wrong  geo¬ 
graphical  position,  having  placed  it  on  the  other  side  of  the 
continent,  and  mixed  up  Montevideo  with  Valparaiso.  It  is 
about  twenty -three  miles  long  and  ten  miles  wide  m  the 
broadest  part,  and  is  covered  with  beautiful  lulls  and  lovely 
valleys,  the  highest  peak  reaching  an  elevation  of  nearly  three 
thousand  feet.  A  hundred  years  ago  the  Spaniards  introduce! 
blood-hounds  to  kill  off  the  goats  and  rabbits,  and  to  keep  the 


LA  PAZ  DE  AYACUCHO. 


453 


pirates  away,  but  the  scheme  did  not  work.  Upon  her  inde¬ 
pendence,  in  1821,  Chili  made  Juan  Fernandez  a  penal  colony, 
but  thirty  years  after  the  prisoners  mutinied,  slaughtered  the 
guards,  and  escaped.  Then  it  was  leased  to  a  cattle  company, 
which  has  now  thirty  thousand  head  of  horned  cattle  and  as 
many  sheep  grazing  upon  the  hills.  There  are  fifty  or  sixty 
inhabitants,  mostly  ranchmen  and  their  families,  who  tend  the 
herds  and  raise  vegetables  for  the  Valparaiso  market. 

Great  care  has  been  taken  to  preserve  the  relics  of  Alex¬ 
ander  Selkirk’s  stay  upon  the  island,  and  his  cave  and  huts 
remain  just  as  he  left  them.  In 
1868  the  officers  of  the  British 
man-of-war  Tojpaz  erected  a  mar¬ 
ble  tablet  to  mark  the  famous 
lookout  from  which  Mr.  Crusoe, 

*  like  the  Ancient  Mariner,  used  to 
watch  for  a  sail,  “  and  yet  no  sail 
from  day  to  day.”  The  inscrip¬ 
tion  reads :  “  In  memory  of  Alex¬ 
ander  Selkirk,  mariner,  a  native  - 
of  Largo,  county  of  Fife,  Scot¬ 
land  ;  who  lived  upon  this  island 
in  complete  solitude  for  four  years 
and  four  months.  He  was  landed 
from  the  Cinque  Ports  galley,  96 
tons,  16  guns,  a.d.  1704,  and  was^taken  off  in  the  Duke , 
privateer,  on  February  12th,  1709.  He  died  Lieutenant  of 
H.B.M.S.  Weymouth :  47  years.  This  tablet  is  erected  upon 
Selkirk’s  lookout  by  Commodore  Powell  and  the  officers  of 
H.B.M.S.  Topaz ,  a.d.  1868.” 

JSTo  one  ever  goes  to  Juan  Fernandez  without  bringing  away 
rocks  and  sticks  as  relics  of  the  place.  There  is  a  very  fine 
sort  of  wood  peculiar  to  the  island  which  makes  beautiful 
canes,  as  it  has  a  rare  grain  and  polishes  well. 

29* 


TABLET  TO  ALEXANDER 
SELKIRK. 


SANTIAGO. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  CHILI. 

Nature  never  intended  there  should  be  a  city  where  ~S  al- 
paraiso  stands,  but  the  enterprise  of  the  Chillanos,  aided  by 
English  and  German  capital,  has  built  there  the  finest  port 
on  °the  west  coast  of  South  America,  and  the  only  one  with 
all  the  modern  improvements.  The  harbor  is  spacious  and 
beautiful,  and  ten  months  in  the  year  it  is  perfectly  safe  for 
shipping,  but  during  the  remaining  two  months,  when  north¬ 
ern  gales  are  frequent,  vessels  are  often  driven  from  their 
anchorage,  and  compelled  to  cruise  about  to  avoid  being 
dashed  upon  the  rocks  on  which  the  city  is  built.  The  har¬ 
bor  is  circular  in  form,  with  an  entrance  a  mile  or  so  wide 
facing  the  north.  A  breakwater  built  across  the  entrance 
would  give  the  shipping  perfect  protection,  but  the  sea  is  so 
qeep — more  than  a  hundred  fathoms — that  such  a  work  is 
considered  impracticable.  In  this  harbor,  drawn  up  in  lines  like 
men-of-war  ready  for  review,  are  hundreds  of  vessels,  bearing 
the  flags  of  almost  every  nation  on  the  earth  except  that  of 
our  own.  Occasionally  the  Stars  and  Stripes  are  seen,  but  so 
seldom  that,  as  an  American  resident  expressed  it.  “  they  cure 
all  the  sore  eyes  in  town.”  Trade  is  practically  control  ec 
by  Englishmen,  all  commercial  transactions  are  calculated  m 
pound?  sterling,  and  the  English  language  is  almost  exclu¬ 
sively  spoken  upon  the  street  and  in  the  shops.  An  English 
paper  is  printed  there,  English  goods  are  almost  exclusively 
sold,  and  this  city  is  nothing  more  than  an  English  colony. 

In  Valparaiso,  as  everywhere  else  in  Chili,  there  is  an 
intense  prejudice  against  the  I  nited  States,  gi  owing  out  o 
the  attitude  assumed  by  our  Government  during  the  late  war 


SANTIAGO. 


455 


with  Peru.  The  prejudice  has  been  aggravated  and  stimu¬ 
lated  by  the  English  residents.  This,  with  the  natural  arro¬ 
gance  of  the  Chillanos,  who  think  they  have  the  finest  coun¬ 
try  on  earth,  and  that  the  United  States  is  their  only  rival, 
makes  it  rather  disagreeable  sometimes  for  Americans  who 
£0  there  to  reside.  For  this  and  other  reasons  our  commerce 

O 


THE  HARBOR  OF  VALPARAISO. 


with  Chili  has  fallen  off  from  millions  to  hundreds  of  thou¬ 
sands,  and  it  will  be  difficult  to  increase  it  as  long  as  the 
prejudice  of  the  people  exists,  and  lines  of  English,  French, 
German,  and  Italian  vessels  connect  V alparaiso  with  the  mar¬ 
kets  of  Europe. 

There  is  no  steam  communication  with  the  United  States, 


456 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


and  all  freight  is  sent  in  sailing-vessels  around  the  Horn  or 
by  way  of  Hamburg  or  Havre.  The  freight  charges  from 
Valparaiso  to  Hew  York  by  way  of  the  Isthmus  are  more 
than  double  those  to  the  European  ports,  and  it  is  about 
thirty  per  cent,  cheaper  to  ship  goods  from  Hew  York  to 
Europe,  and  from  there  to  South  America,  than  by  way  of 
Aspinwall  and  Panama.  Passenger  fares  as  well  as  Height 
are  subject  to  this  discrimination.  One  can  go  from  Valpa¬ 
raiso  to  Europe  via  the  Strait  of  Magellan — a  voyage  of  forty- 
one  days — cheaper  than  to  Panama — a  voyage  of  twenty  days, 
which  ought  to  be  made  in  ten.  It  costs  about  ten  cents  per 
mile  on  a  steamer  from  Valparaiso  to  the  Isthmus,  to  Cali¬ 
fornia,  or  to  Hew  York,  and  about  two  cents  a  mile  to  Eu¬ 
rope.  As  if  this  were  not  enough,  the  steamship  company, 
a  British  corporation  which  controls  navigation  on  the  west 
coast,  arranges  its  time-tables  so  as  not  to  connect  with  the 
Hew  York  steamers  at  the  Isthmus,  and  its  steamers  usually 
arrive  at  Panama  the  day  after  the  Pacific  Mail  ship  leaves 
Aspinwall,  so  as  to  subject  the  traveller  to  the  expense  and 
annoyance  of  ten  days’  delay  on  the  fever-haunted  Chagres. 
Freight  and  mails  receive  the  same  treatment,  and  every  pos¬ 
sible  obstacle  is  raised  to  divert  trade  from  the  United  States 
to  Europe. 

Valparaiso  means  “  the  Vale  of  Paradise,”  but  somehow  or 
other  there  was  a  misconception  in  this  particular,  for  there 
is  no  vale  and  no  symptoms  of  Paradise.  An  almost  perpen¬ 
dicular  mountain  ridge  forms  a  crescent  around  the  bay,  tow¬ 
ards  the  shores  of  which  descend  steep,  rocky  escarpments. 
Here  and  there  watercourses  have  furrowed  ravines,  or  baran- 
cas ,  as  they  are  called,  which  offer  the  only  means  of  reaching 
the  outer  world.  Along  the  narrow  strip  of  sand  which  lies 
between  the  sea  and  the  cliffs  the  town  stretches  three  or 
four  miles.  In  some  places  there  is  width  enough  for  one  or 
two  streets,  at  others  for  three  or  four  running  parallel  to 
each  other,  but  they  extend  only  a  few  blocks.  The  one 
street,  the  only  artery  of  commerce  in  Valparaiso,  is  the 
Calle  Victoria,  stretching  around  the  entire  harbor,  and 


SANTIAGO. 


457 


skirted  by  all  the  banks  and  hotels,  the  counting-houses  of  the 
wholesale  firms,  the  shops  of  the  retailers,  the  Government 
buildings,  and  the  fine  private  residences.  The  rocky  cliffs 
have  been  terraced  as  the  town  has  grown,  and  the  city  now 
extends  back  upon  the  hills  a  long  distance,  one  man’s  house 
being  above  another’s,  and  reached  by  stairways,  winding 
roads,  and  steam  “  lifts,”  which  carry  passengers  up  inclined 
planes,  like  those  at  Niagara  and  Pittsburg.  What  roads 
there  are  were  laid  out  by  the  goats  that  formerly  fed  upon 
the  mountain  side,  and  these  twist  about  in  the  most  confus¬ 
ing  and  circuitous  fashion.  One  has  to  stop  and  pant  for 
breath  as  he  climbs  them,  and  an  alpenstock  is  needed  in 
coming  down.  The  hacks  in  Valparaiso  have  three  horses 
attached  to  them,  and  the  teaming  is  done  in  carts  drawn 
by  four  oxen. 

An  evening  view  of  Valparaiso  from  a  steamer  in  the  bay 
is  quite  novel,  as  the  lines  of  lights,  one  above  the  other,  give 
the  appearance  of  a  city  turned  up  on  end.  Electric  lamps 
are  placed  upon  the  crests  of  the  cliffs,  throwing  their  rays 
over  into  the  streets  and  upon  the  terraces  below  with  the 
effect  of  moonlight.  During  the  day,  however,  the  irregular 
rows  of  houses,  of  different  shapes  and  elevations,  clinging  to 
the  precipices,  look  as  if  a  strong  wind  might  blow  them  over¬ 
board,  or  an  earthquake  shake  them  off  into  the  bay. 

The  business  portion  of  Valparaiso  along  the  beach  shows 
some  fine  architecture,  more  elaborate  than  is  to  be  seen  else¬ 
where  in  Central  and  South  America,  there  being  a  rivalry  in 
handsomely  carved  fagades  and  other  adornments.  The  shops 
and  stores  are  as  large,  and  contain  as  complete  an  assort¬ 
ment  of  goods,  as  those  in  any  city  in  the  world.  There 
is  no  city  in  the  United  States  having  the  population  of  Val¬ 
paraiso  (125,000)  with  so  many  fine  shops,  and  such  a  display 
of  costly  and  luxurious  articles.  The  people  are  wealthy  and 
prosperous,  the  foreign  element  is  large  and  rich,  and  the 
place  is  famous,  as  is  Santiago,  the  capital,  for  the  extrava¬ 
gance  of  its  citizens.  Some  of  the  private  residences  are  pa¬ 
latial  in  their  proportions  and  equipments,  and  millions  of 


458 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


dollars  are  represented  under  the  roofs  of  bankers  and  mer¬ 
chants.  There  are  clubs  as  fine  as  the  average  in  New  1  ork 
or  London,  public  reading-rooms,  libraries,  picture-galleries, 
and  all  the  elements  which  go  to  make  up  modern  civiliza¬ 
tion.  The  parks  and  plazas  are  filled  with  beautiful  fountains, 
and  with  statuary  of  bronze  and  marble,  much  of  which,  to  the 
shame  of  Chili,  was  stolen  from  the  public  and  private  gar¬ 
dens  of  Peru  during  the  late  war.  A  Government  building 
was  torn  away  to  give  place  to  a  magnificent  monument  to 
Arturo  Pratt,  an  Irish  hero  of  that  struggle.  Pratt’s  reckless 
courage  made  him  the  ideal  of  all  that  is  great  and  noble  in 
the  mind  of  the  Chillanos,  who  have  erected  a  monument  to 
his  memory  in  nearly  every  town.  Streets  and  shops,  sa¬ 
loons,  mines,  opera-houses,  and  even  lotteries  are  named  in 
his  honor,  and  the  greatest  national  tribute  is  to  destroy  the 
old  custom-house  in  order  to  erect  his  monument  in  the  most 
conspicuous  place  in  the  principal  city. 

The  oddest  thing  to  be  seen  in  Valparaiso  is  the  female 
street-car  conductors.  The  street-car  managers  of  Chili  have 
added  another  occupation  to  the  list  of  those  in  which  women 
may  engage.  The  experiment  was  first  tried  during  the  war 
with  Peru,  when  all  the  able-bodied  men  were  sent  to  the 
army,  and  proved  so  successful  that  their  employment  has  be¬ 
come  permanent,  to  the  advantage,  it  is  said,  of  the  compa¬ 
nies,  the  women,  and  the  public.  The  first  impression  one 
forms  of  a  woman  with  a  bell-punch  taking  up  fares  is  not  fa¬ 
vorable,  but  the  stranger  soon  becomes  accustomed  to  this  as 
to  all  other  novelties,  and  concludes  that  it  is  not  such  a  bad 
idea  after  all.  The  street-cars  are  double-deckers,  with  seats 
upon  the  roof  as  well  as  within,  and  the  driver  occupies  a 
perch  on  the  rear  platform,  taking  the  fare  as  the  passenger 
enters.  The  Chillano  is  a  rough  individual ;  he  is  haughty, 
arrogant,  impertinent,  and  abusive.  There  is  more  intemper¬ 
ance  in  Chili  than  in  any  other  of  the  South  American  States, 
and  consequent lv  more  quarrels  and  murders,  but  the  female 
conductors  are  seldom  disturbed  in  the  discharge  of  their  du¬ 
ties,  and  when  they  are,  the  rule  is  to  call  upon  the  policemen, 


VICTORIA  STREET,  VALPARAISO. 


SANTIAGO. 


461 


who  stand  at  every  corner,  to  eject  the  obstreperous  passen¬ 
ger. 

Street-car  riding  is  a  popular  amusement  with  the  young 
men  about  town.  Those  who  make  a  business  of  flirting  with 
the  conductors  are  called  “  mosquitoes  ”  in  local  parlance,  be¬ 
cause  they  swarm  so  thickly  around  the  cars,  and  are  so  great 
a  nuisance.  Not  long  ago  a  comic  paper  printed  a  cartoon  in 
which  some  of  the  best-known  faces  of  the  swells  of  Valpa¬ 
raiso  appeared  on  the  bodies  of  mosquitoes  swarming  around 
the  car  of  “  Conductor  97,”  who  had  the  reputation  of  being 
the  prettiest  girl  on  the  line.  This  put  a  stop  to  the  practice 
for  a  while,  and  caused  some  of  the  fashionable  young  men 
to  retire  to  the  country,  but  it  was  soon  resumed  again.  The 
conductors,  or  conductresses,  are  usually  young,  and  some¬ 
times  quite  pretty,  being  commonly  of  the  mixed  race  —  of 
Spanish  and  Indian  blood.  They  wear  a  neat  uniform  of 
blue  flannel,  with  a  jaunty  Panama  hat,  and  a  many-pocketed 
white  pinafore,  reaching  from  the  breast  to  the  ankles,  and 
trimmed  with  dainty  frills.  In  these  pockets  they  carry  small 
change  and  tickets,  while  hanging  to  a  strap  over  their  shoul¬ 
ders  is  a  little  shopping-bag,  in  which  is  a  lunch,  a  pocket- 
handkerchief,  and  surplus  money  and  tickets.  Each  passen¬ 
ger,  when  paying  his  fare,  receives  a  yellow  paper  ticket, 
numbered,  which  he  is  expected  to  destroy.  The  girls  are 
charged  with  so  many  tickets,  and  when  they  report  at  head¬ 
quarters  are  expected  to  return  money  for  all  that  are  miss¬ 
ing,  any  deficit  being  deducted  from  their  wages,  which  are 
twenty-five  dollars  per  month. 

The  women  of  Chili  are  not  so  pretty  as  their  sisters  in 
Peru.  They  are  generally  larger  in  feature  and  figure,  have 
not  the  dainty  feet  and  supple  grace  of  the  Lima  belles,  and 
lack  their  voluptuous  languor.  In  Valparaiso  half  the  ladies 
are  of  the  Saxon  type,  and  blonde  hair  looks  grateful  when 
one  has  seen  nothing  but  midnight  tresses  for  months.  Here, 
too,  modern  costumes  are  worn  more  generally  than  in  other 
South  American  countries,  and  the  shops  are  full  of  Paris  bon¬ 
nets.  But  the  black  manta,  with  its  fringe  of  lace,  is  still 


462 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


common  enough  to  be  considered  the  costume  of  the  country, 
and  is  always  worn  to  mass  in  the  morning.  The  manta  is 
becoming  to  almost  everybody.  It  hides  the  defects  of  home¬ 
ly  forms  and  figures,  and  heightens  grace  and  beauty.  It 
makes  an  old  woman  look  young,  a  stout  woman  appears 
more  slender  under  its  graceful  folds,  and  even  a  skeleton 
would  look  coquettish  when  wrapped  in  the  rich  embroidery 
which  some  bear. 

In  Chili  mantas  and  skirts  of  white  flannel  are  worn  hy  pe- 
nitentas — women  who  have  committed  sin,  and  thus  advertise 
their  penitence,  or  those  who  have  taken  some  holy  vow  to 
get  a  measure  nearer  heaven,  and  who  go  about  the  street 
with  downcast  eyes,  looking  at  nothing  and  recognizing  no  one. 
They  hover  around  the  churches,  and  sit  for  hours  crouched 
before  some  saint  or  crucifix.  In  the  great  cathedral  at  San¬ 
tiago  and  in  the  smaller  churches  everywhere  these  peniten- 
tas,  in  their  snow-white  garments,  are  always  to  be  seen  on 
their  knees,  or  posing  in  other  uncomfortable  postures,  look¬ 
ing  like  statues.  They  cluster  in  groups  around  the  confes¬ 
sionals,  waiting  to  receive  absolution  from  some  fat  and  burly 
father,  that  they  may  rid  their  bodies  of  the  mark  of  peni¬ 
tence  they  carry,  and  their  souls  of  sin.  Ladies  of  high  social 
position  and  great  wealth  are  commonly  found  among  the 
penitentas,  as  well  as  young  girls  of  beauty  and  winning  grace. 
The  women  of  Chili  are  as  pious  as  the  men  are  proud,  and 
this  method  of  securing  absolution  is  quite  fashionable.  Souls 
that  cannot  be  purged  by  this  penitential  dress  retire  to  a  con¬ 
vent  in  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  called  the  Convent  of  the 
Penitentes,  where  they  scourge  themselves  with  whips,  mor- 
tifv  the  flesh  with  sackcloth,  sleep  in  ashes  and  upon  stone 
floors,  and  feed  themselves  on  mouldy  crusts,  until  the  priests 
by  whose  advice  they  go  give  them  absolution.  They  are 
usually  women  who  have  been  unfaithful  to  their  marriage 
vows,  or  girls  who  have  yielded  to  temptation.  After  the 
society  season  and  the  carnivals,  at  the  end  of  the  summer, 
when  people  return  from  the  fashionable  resorts,  and  at  the 
beginning  of  Lent,  these  places  are  full.  For  those  whose  sins 


SANTIAGO. 


463 


have  been  too  great  to  be  washed  out  by  this  process,  whose 
shame  has  been  published  to  the  world,  and  who  are  unfitted 
under  social  laws  to  associate  with  the  pure,  other  convents 
are  open  as  a  refuge.  Young  mothers  without  husbands  are 
here  cared  for,  and  their  babes  are  taken  to  an  orphan  asylum 
in  the  neighborhood,  to  be  reared  by  the  nuns  for  the  priest¬ 
hood  and  other  religious  orders. 

It  was  from  one  of  these  places  that  the  famous  Henry 
Meiggs  got  his  second  wife,  and  the  adventure  is  still  related 
with  great  gusto  by  the  gossips  of  Chili.  An  American  den¬ 
tist  named  Robinson  lived  in  the  same  block  on  which  the  con¬ 
vent  was  situated,  and  from  the  roof  of  his  house  the  garden 
of  the  nuns  was  plainly  visible.  Boccaccio  never  told  a  more 
romantic  tale,  for  it  involved  notes  tied  to  stones  and  thrown 
into  the  garden,  rope-ladders,  excited  nuns,  infuriated  parents, 
and  an  outraged  Church.  But  the  adventure  was  followed 
by  forgiveness  and  marriage,  and  the  widow  now  lives  in 
Santiago,  in  the  luxury  which  her  legacy  from  the  great  rail¬ 
road  contractor  provides. 

In  the  orphan  asylum  at  Santiago  there  are  said  to  be  two 
thousand  children  of  unknown  parentage,  supported  by  the 
Church,  and  this  in  a  city  of  two  hundred  thousand  people. 
There  is  a  very  convenient  mode  for  the  disposition  of  found¬ 
lings.  In  the  rear  wall  surrounding  the  place  is  an  aperture, 
with  a  wooden  box  or  cradle  which  swings  out  and  in.  A 
mother  who  has  no  use  for  her  baby  goes  there  at  night,  places 
the  little  one  in  the  cradle,  swings  it  inside,  and  the  nuns  on 
guard  hearing  a  bell  that  rings  automatically,  take  the  infant 
to  the  nursery.  The  next  morning  the  mother,  if  she  has  no 
occupation  to  detain  her,  applies  for  employment  as  a  wet- 
nurse.  However  this  plan  may  be  regarded  by  stern  moral¬ 
ists,  it  is  certainly  an  improvement  on  infanticide,  a  crime 
almost  unknown  in  Chili.  But  one  may  hunt  the  country 
over  to  find  a  house  of  correction  for  men.  Sin,  shame,  and 
penitence  appear  to  be  the  exclusive  attributes  of  the  weaker 
sex.  Men  are  never  seen  at  the  confessional ;  they  never  wear 
white  wrappings  to  advertise  their  guilt ;  and  at  mass  in  the 


464 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


morning  the  average  attendance  is  about  one  man  to  every 
hundred  women. 

Santiago  is  reached  from  Valparaiso  by  a  railway  which  is 
run  on  the  English  plan,  and  is  similar  in  its  equipment  and 
system  of  management  to  those  of  Europe.  The  scenery  along 
the  line  is  picturesque,  the  snow-caps  of  the  Andean  peaks  be¬ 
ing  constantly  in  view,  and  Aconcagua,  the  highest  mountain 
on  this  hemisphere,  can  be  seen  nearly  the  entire  distance.  A 
few  miles  from  Valparaiso,  and  the  first  station  on  the  road, 
is  Vin  del  Mar,  the  Long  Branch  of  Chili,  where  many  of  the 
wealthy  residents  of  the  country  have  fine  establishments, 
and  usually  spend  the  summer.  It  is  by  far  the  most  mod¬ 
ern  and  elegant  fashionable  resort  in  South  America,  and  re¬ 
minds  one  of  the  popular  haunts  along  the  Mediterranean. 
The  journey  to  Santiago  is  made  in  about  live  hours,  and  one 
is  Agreeably  surprised  when  he  arrives  to  find  in  the  capital 
of  Chili  one  of  the  finest  cities  on  the  continent. 

Although  the  climate  of  Santiago  is  similar  to  that  of  "Wash¬ 
ington  or  St.  Louis,  the  people  have  a  notion  that  fires  in 
their  houses  are  unhealtfiful,  and,  except  in  those  built  by 
English  or  American  residents,  there  is  nothing  like  a  grate 
or  a  stove  to  be  found.  Everybody  weal's  the  warmest  sort 
of  underclothing,  and  heavy  wraps  in-doors  and  out.  The 
people  spend  six  months  of  the  year  in  a  perpetual  shiver, 
and  the  remainder  in  a  perpetual  perspiration.  It  looks  rather 
odd  to  see  civilized  people  sitting  in  a  parlor,  surrounded  by  ev¬ 
ery  possible  luxury  that  wealth  can  bring  (except  fire)  wrapped 
in  furs  and  rugs,  with  blue  noses  and  chattering  teeth,  when 
coal  is  cheap,  and  the  mountains  are  covered  with  timber. 
But  nothing  can  convince  a  Chillano  that  artificial  heat  is 
healthful,  and  during  the  winter,  which  is  the  rainy  season, 
he  has  not  the  wit  to  warm  his  chilled  body.  It  is  odd.  too,  to 
see  in  the  streets  men  wearing  fur  caps,  and  with  their  throats 
wrapped  in  heavy  mufflers,  while  the  women  who  walk  be¬ 
side  them  have  nothing  on  their  heads  at  all.  During  the 
morning,  while  on  the  way  from  mass,  or  while  shopping, 
the  women  wear  the  manta,  as  they  do  in  Peru,  but  in  the 


SANTIAGO. 


405 


afternoons,  on  the  promenade,  or  when  riding,  they  go  bare¬ 
headed.  Although  the  prevailing  diseases  are  pneumonia 
and  other  throat  and  lung  complaints,  and  during  the  winter 
the  mortality  from  these  causes  is  immense,  the  Chillano  per¬ 
sists  in  believing  that  artificial  heat  poisons  the  atmosphere ; 
and  when  he  visits  the  home  of  a  foreigner,  and  finds  a  fire, 
he  will  ask  that  the  door  be  left  ajar,  so  that  he  may  be  as 
chilly  as  usual.  At  fashionable  gatherings,  dinner-parties, 
and  that  sort  of  thing,  I  have  seen  women  in  full  evening- 
dress  with  bare  arms  and  shoulders,  with  the  temperature  of 
the  room  between  forty  and  fifty  Fahrenheit.  They  often 
carry  into  the  salon  or  dining-room  their  fur  wraps,  and  wear 
them  at  the  table,  while  at  every  chair  is  a  foot-warmer  of 
thick  llama  wool,  into  which  they  poke  their  dainty  slippered 
toes.  These  foot-warmers  are  ornamental  as  well  as  useful, 
have  embroidered  cases,  and  are  manufactured  at  home,  or 
can  be  purchased  of  the  nuns,  who  spend  much  of  their  time 
in  needle-work. 

Every  lady  seen  on  the  street  in  the  morning  carries  a 
prayer-rug,  often  handsomely  embroidered,  which  she  kneels 
upon  at  mass  to  protect  her  limbs  from  the  damp  stone  floors 
of  the  churches,  in  which  there  are  never  any  pews.  It  used 
to  be  the  proper  thing  to  have  a  servant  follow  my  lady,  bear¬ 
ing  her  rug  and  prayer-book,  but  that  fashion  has  now  become 
obsolete. 

The  shops  do  not  open  until  nine  or  ten  o’clock  in  the 
morning,  close  from  five  to  seven  to  allow  the  proprietors  and 
clerks  to  dine,  and  are  then  open  again  until  midnight,  as 
between  eight  and  eleven  o’clock  at  night  most  of  the  retail 
trading  is  done.  The  finest  shops  are  in  the  arcades  or  por- 
tales ,  like  the  Palais  Royal  in  Paris,  and  are  brilliantly  lighted 
with  electricity.  Here  the  ladies  gather,  swarming  around 
the  pretty  goods  like  bees  around  the  flowers,  and  of  course 
the  haughty  and  impertinent  dons  come  also  to  stare  at  them. 
It  seems  to  be  considered  a  compliment,  a  mark  of  admira¬ 
tion,  to  stare  at  a  woman,  for  she  never  turns  away.  To 
these  nightly  gatherings  come  all  who  have  nothing  serious 
30 


-±66 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


to  detain  them,  and  the  flirtations  begun  at  the  portales  are 
the  curse  of  the  women  of  Santiago.  It  is  not  rude  to  address 
a  lady  who  has  returned  your  glance,  and  while  she  may  re¬ 
pulse  her  admirer,  she  will  nevertheless  boast  of  the  attention 
as  a  pronounced  form  of  flattery. 

The  shops  are  full  of  the  prettiest  sorts  of  goods,  the 
most  expensive  diamonds,  jewellery,  and  laces.  The  San- 
tiao-oans  boast  that  everything  that  can  be  found  in  Paris 
can  be  purchased  there,  and  one  easily  believes  it  to  be  true. 
There  is  plenty  of  money  in  Chili ;  the  people  have  a  refined 
taste  and  luxurious  habits.  Many  of  the  private  houses  are 
palatial,  and  the  toilets  of  the  women  are  superb.  The  equi¬ 
pages  to  be  seen  in  Santiago  are  equal  to  those  of  New  T  ork 
or  London,  and  the  Alameda,  on  pleasant  afternoons,  is  crowd¬ 
ed  with  handsome  carriages,  with  liveried  coachmen  and  foot¬ 
men,  like  Central  Park  or  Rotten  Row. 

The  Alameda  is  three  hundred  feet  in  width,  broken  by 
four  rows  of  poplar-trees,  and  stretches  the  full  length  of  the 
city — four  miles — from  “  Santa  Lucia  to  the  Exposition  Park 
and  Horticultural  Gardens.  In  the  centre  is  a  promenade, 
while  on  either  side  is  a  drive-way  one  hundred  feet  wide. 
The  promenade  is  dotted  with  a  line  of  statues  representing 
the  famous  men  or  commemorating  the  famous  events  in  the 
history  of  Chili,  a  country  which  has  assassinated  or  sent  into 
exile  some  of  her  noblest  sons,  but  never  fails  to  perpetuate 
their  memory  in  bronze  or  marble.  On  the  Alameda,  from 
three  to  five  o’clock  every  afternoon  during  the  season,  mili¬ 
tary  bands  are  placed  for  the  entertainment  of  the  public, 
and  the  music  calls  out  all  the  population  to  walk  or  drive. 
During  the  summer  the  music  is  given  in  the  evening  instead 
of  the  afternoon,  when  the  portales  are  deserted  for  the  out¬ 
door  promenade. 

Fronting  the  Alameda  are  the  finest  palaces  in  the  city, 
magnificent  dwellings  of  the  Paris  type  often  one  or  two 
hundred  feet  square,  with  the  invariable  patio  and  its  fount¬ 
ains  and  flowers  in  the  centre.  Houses  which  cost  half  a 
million  dollars  to  build  and  a  quarter  of  a  million  to  furnish 


SANTIAGO. 


467 


are  common ;  and  there  are  some  even  more  expensive.  The 
former  residence  of  the  late  Henry  Meiggs,  surrounded  by  a 
forest  of  foliage  and  a  beautiful  garden,  stands  in  the  centre 


SANTA  LUCIA. 


of  a  park  eight  hun¬ 
dred  feet  square.  It  is 
a  conspicuous  example 
of  extravagance,  hav¬ 
ing  cost  a  mint  of 
money,  every  timber 
and  brick  and  tile  be¬ 
ing  imported  at  enor¬ 
mous  expense.  It  is  at  present  unoccupied,  and  in  a  state  of 
decay,  there  being  no  one,  since  the  death  of  Meiggs,  with  the 
courage  or  the  means  to  sustain  such  grandeur.  But  though 


468 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  nabobs  seek  the  boulevard  of  the  city  to  display  their 
wealth  and  architectural  taste,  some  of  the  side  streets  have 
residences  quite  as  grand,  and  even  more  aristocratic.  These 
more  retired  quarters  have  an  air  of  gentility  which  the  Ala¬ 
meda  has  not  acquired — a  sort  of  established  aristocratic  re¬ 
pose — a  riper,  richer,  and  more  honorable  quiet,  that  suggests 
something  of  social  distinction  and  haughty  exclusiveness, 
venerable  solitude  and  commercial  solidity.  Another  monu¬ 
ment  to  the  extravagance  of  men  was  built  by  Don  Jose 
Diaz  Gana — a  magnificent  structure,  modelled  after  a  Moorish 
palace,  and  its  cost  tvas  fabulous.  The  owner  was  a  native 
gentleman,  who  discovered  one  of  the  richest  silver-mines  in 
Chili,  and  who  lived  like  a  prince  until  his  money  was  gone. 
His  castle  is  now  unoccupied,  and  he  is  again  in  the  mount¬ 
ains  prospecting  for  another  fortune. 

“  Santa  Lucia  ”  is  the  most  beautiful  place  I  have  seen  in 
South  America.  It  is  a  pile  of  rocks  six  hundred  feet  high, 
cast  by  some  volcanic  agency  into  the  centre  of  the  great 
plain  on  which  the  city  stands.  It  was  here  that  the  United 
States  Astronomical  Expedition  of  1852,  under  Lieutenant 
Gillis,  made  observations.  Before  that  time,  and  as  far  back 
as  the  Spanish  Invasion,  it  was  a  magnificent  fortress,  com¬ 
manding  the  entire  valley  with  its  guns.  Tradition  has  it  that 
the  King  of  the  Araucanians  had  a  stronghold  here  before  the 
Spaniards  came.  After  the  departure  of  the  United  States  ex¬ 
pedition  Yicunae  McKenna, a  public-spirited  man  of  wealth  in 
Santiago,  undertook  the  work  of  beautifving  the  place.  By 
the  aid  of  private  subscriptions,  and  much  of  his  own  means, 
he  sought  all  the  resources  that  taste  could  suggest  and  money 
reach  to  improve  on  nature’s  grandeur.  His  success  was  com¬ 
plete.  Winding  walks  and  stair-ways,  parapets  and  balconies, 
grottoes  and  fiower:beds,  groves  of  trees  and  vine-hung  arbors, 
follow  one  another  from  the  base  to  the  summit ;  while  upon 
the  west,  at  the  edge  of  a  precipice  eight  hundred  feet  high, 
are  a  miniature  castle  and  a  lovely  little  chapel,  in  whose  crypt 
Yicunae  McKenna’s  bones  were  laid  iu  January,  1886.  Below 
the  chapel,  two  or  three  hundred  feet  on  the  opposite  side  of 


* 


SANTIAGO. 


469 


The  euaca  is  a  sort  of  can-can,  except  that  it  is  decent,  and 
the  men  instead  of  the  girls  do  the  high  kicking.  But  when 
the  dancers  are  under  the  influence  of  chicha — that  liquor 
which  tastes  like  hard  cider,  but  is  ninety  per  cent,  alcohol — 
skirts  and  modesty  are  no  impediments  to  the  success  of  the 
dance.  The  couples  pair  off  and  face  each  other,  while  on 
benches  near  by  are  women  thrumming  guitars  and  singing  a 
wild  barbaric  air  in  polka  time.  Each  woman  and  man  has 
a  handkerchief  which  he  or  she  waves  in  the  air,  and  they 


the  hill,  is  a  level  place  on  which  a  restaurant  and  an  out-door 
theatre  have  been  erected.  Here,  on  summer  nights,  come 
the  population  of  the  city  to  eat  ices,  drink  beer,  and  laugh  at 
the  farces  played  upon  the  stage,  while  bands  of  music  and 
dancing  make  the  people  merry.  This  is  the  resort  of  the 
aristocracy.  The  poor  people  go  to  Cousino  Park,  at  the 
other  end  of  the  Alameda,  drink  chicha ,  and  dance  the  cuaca 
(pronounced  quaker),  the  Chilian©  national  dance. 


THE  ZAMA-CUACA. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


470 


sway  around  in  postures  that  are  intended  to  show  the  grace 
and  suppleness  of  the  performer,  and  often  do.  The  dance 
usually  ends  with  a  wild  carousal,  in  which  men  and  women 
mingle  promiscuously,  embrace  each  other,  and  then  go  off 
to  the  chicha  bars  to  get  stimulants  for  the  next.  It  is  com¬ 
mon  in  fashionable  society  to  end  the  tertulias  with  the  cuaca, 
as  in  the  United  States  with  the  ancient  «  Virginia  reel and 
if  the  young  people  are  unusually  hilarious,  scenes  occur  which 
watchful  dowagers  desire  to  prevent.  Scliool-girls  at  the  con¬ 
vents  dance  the  cuaca  when  the  nuns  will  allow  them ;  and 
although  in  its  ordinary  form  it  is  not  nearly  so  immodest  as 
some  of  our  dances,  license  has  been  taken  so  often  as  to 
bring  it  into  disrepute.  One  evening  at  the  opera  a  pretty 
married  woman  was  pointed  out  as  the  most  graceful  and 
agilp  cuaca  dancer  in  Chili,  and  it  was  asserted  that  she  could 
throw  her  heels  higher  than  her  head. 

At  the  other  end  of  the  Alameda  are  the  Exposition 
grounds  and  Horticultural  gardens,  laid  out  in  good  style, 
and  improved  to  the  highest  degree  of  landscape  architecture. 
There  is  a  fine  stone  and  glass  building,  a  miniature  copy  of 
the  Crystal  Palace  in  London,  used  as  the  National  Museum 
of  Chili,  whose  contents  were  mostly  stolen  from  Peru  dur¬ 
ing  the  late  war.  A  zoological  garden  lias  been  added,  to  ex¬ 
hibit  the  animals  brought  from  Peru,  like  the  curiosities  of 
the  museum,  as  contraband  of  war.  I  he  elephant  died  fiom 
the  severity  of  the  climate,  two  of  the  lions  are  missing  from 
the  same  cause,  and  the  rest  of  the  menagerie  are  suffering 
from  exposure  and  cold  to  which  they  are  unaccustomed. 

The  opera-house  at  Santiago  is  owned  by  the  city,  and  is 
claimed  to  be  the  finest  structure  of  the  sort  in  all  America. 
It  certainly  surpasses  in  size,  arrangement,  and  gorgeousness 
any  we  have  in  the  United  States.  It  is  built  upon  the  Eu¬ 
ropean  plan,  with  four  balconies,  three  of  which  are  divided 
off  into  boxes  upholstered  in  the  most  luxurious  manner.  The 
balconies  are  supported  by  brackets,  so  that  there  ar$  no  pil¬ 
lars  to  obstruct  the  view.  Under  the  direction  of  the  mayor, 
each  year,  the  boxes  are  sold  at  auction  for  the  season,  and 


SANTIAGO. 


471 


# 


the  receipts  given,  in  whole  or  in  part,  as  a  subsidy  to  the 
opera  management. 

Everywhere  one  goes  in  Santiago  and  other  cities  in  Chili 
are  to  be  seen  the  ornaments  of  which  Peru  was  so  merci¬ 
lessly  plundered — statuary  and  fountains,  ornamental  street- 
lamps,  benches  of  carved  stone  in  the  parks  and  the  Alameda, 
and  almost  everything  that  beautifies  the  streets.  Transports 
that  were  sent  up  to  Callao  with  troops  brought  back  cargoes 
of  pianos,  pictures,  furniture,  books,  and  articles  of  household 
decoration  stolen  from  the  homes  of  the  Peruvians.  Lamp- 


EXPOSITION  BUILDING,  SANTIAGO. 


posts  torn  up  from  their  foundations,  pretty  iron  fences  and 
images  from  the  cemeteries,  altar  equipments  of  silver  from 
the  churches,  statuary  from  the  parks  and  streets,  and  every¬ 
thing  that  the  hands  of  thieves  and  vandals  could  reach,  were 
stolen.  Clocks — one  of  which  now  gives  time  to  the  market¬ 
place  of  Santiago — were  taken  from  the  steeples  of  the  church¬ 
es,  and  even  the  effigies  of  saints  were  lifted  from  the  altars 
and  stripped  of  the  embroideries  and  jewels  they  had  received 
from  their  devotees.  In  the  court-yard  of  the  post-office  at 
Santiago  are  two  statues  of  marble  which  cause  the  American 
tourist  to  start  in  surprise,  for  George  Washington  and  Abra- 


472 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ham  Lincoln  stand  like  unexpected  ghosts  before  him.  Their 
presence  is  not  announced  in  any  of  the  guide-books,  which  is 
accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  they,  like  most  everything 
else  of  the  kind  in  Chili,  were  brought  from  Peru. 

The  new  hotel,  in  the  eyes  of  foreigners  who  have  been 
compelled  to  stop  at  the  old  ones,  is  the  finest  ornament  in 
Santiago.  Compared  with  previous  accommodations,  it  is  a 
magnificent  structure,  with  about  one  hundred  rooms,  and  a 
five  thousand  dollar  cook  from  Paris.  All  the  rooms  have 
grates  for  fires — which  is  an  innovation — and  are  furnished 
as  handsomely  as  any  of  the  hotels  in  New  York,  while 
the  restaurant  is  as  good  as  Delmonico’s.  Of  course  there 
must  be  some  oddity  about  the  place — it  would  not  be  suited 
to  the  country  if  there  were  not — and  here  it  is  that  the  bar  is 
placed  in  the  cafe  where  the  ladies  lunch.  It  is  the  only  hotel 
bar'in  South  America ;  and  the  proprietor,  who  wanted  to  in¬ 
troduce  all  the  modern  improvements,  was  rather  bewildered 
in  selecting  the  location  of  this  one.  It  is  a  gorgeous  affair  of 
silver  and  crystal,  and  the  ladies  admire  it  as  much  as  do  the 
men.  At  first  they  were  disposed  to  walk  up  and  say,  “  The 
same  for  me,  if  you  please,”  with  their  brothers  and  husbands, 
but  have  been  convinced  that  the  proper  form  is  to  sit  at  the 
tables  and  take  their  drinks  there.  To  see  a  lady  drinking  a 
cocktail  in  the  bar-room  of  the  Grand  Central  of  Santiago 
may  startle  the  prohibitionist  who  goes  there,  but  it  is  quite 
as  much  the  fashion  as  is  the  sucking  of  mint-juleps  through 
a  straw  on  the  balconies  of  a  Long  Branch  hotel. 

The  Chillano  is  the  Yankee  of  South  America — the  most 
active,  enterprising,  ingenious,  and  thrifty  of  the  Spanish- 
American  race — aggressive,  audacious,  and  arrogant,  quick  to 
perceive,  quick  to  resent,  fierce  in  disposition,  cold-blooded, 
and  cruel  as  a  cannibal.  He  dreams  of  conquest.  ILe  has 
only  a  strip  of  country  along  the  Pacific  coast,  so  narrow 
that  there  is  scarcely  room  enough  to  write  its  name  upon 
the  map,  hemmed  in  on  the  one  side  by  the  eternal  snows 
that  crown  the  Cordilleras,  and  on  the  other  side  by  six  thou¬ 
sand  miles  of  sea.  He  has  been  stretching  himself  northward 


SANTIAGO. 


473 


until  he  has  stolen  all  the  sea-coast  of  Bolivia,  with  her  valu¬ 
able  nitrate  deposits,  all  the  guano  that  belonged  to  Peru,  and 
contemplates  soon  taking  actual  possession  of  both  those  re¬ 
publics.  He  has  been  reaching  southward  by  diplomacy  as 
he  did  northward  by  war ;  and  under  a  recent  treaty  with  the 
Argentine  Republic  he  has  divided  Patagonia  with  that  na¬ 
tion,  taking  to  himself  the  control  of  that  valuable  interna¬ 
tional  highway,  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  and  the  unexplored 
country  between  the  Andes  and  the  ocean,  with  thousands  of 
islands  along  the  Pacific  coast  whose  resources  are  unknown. 
By  securing  the  strait,  Chili  acquired  control  of  steam  navi¬ 
gation  in  the  South  Pacific,  and  has  established  a  colony  and 
fortress  at  Punta  Arenas  by  which  all  vessels  must  pass. 

Reposing  tranquilly  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  the  newly  ac¬ 
quired  territory  along  the  Bolivian  and  Peruvian  border,  and 
deriving  an  enormous  revenue  from  the  export  tax  upon  ni¬ 
trate,  the  Chillano  contemplates  the  internal  dissensions  of 
Peru,  and  waits  anxiously  for  the  time  when  he  can  step  in 
as  arbitrator  and,  like  the  lawyer,  take  the  estate  that  the 
heirs  are  silly  enough  to  quarrel  over.  It  is  but  a  question  of 
years  when  not  only  Peru  but  Bolivia  will  become  a  part  of 
Chili ;  when  the  aggressive  nation  will  want  to  push  her  east¬ 
ern  boundary  back  of  the  Andes,  and  secure  control  of  the 
sources  of  the  Amazon,  as  she  has  of  the  navigation  of  the 
strait. 

On  the  beautiful  Alameda  of  Santiago  stands  a  marble 
monument  erected  several  years  ago,  after  the  partition  of 
Patagonia,  to  commemorate  the  generosity  of  the  Argentine 
Republic.  That  statue  will  some  day  be  pulled  down  by  a 
mob.  The  people  are  already  regretting  the  impulsive  cor¬ 
diality  which  suggested  it,  and  are  looking  with  jealous  eyes 
at  the  progress  and  prosperity  of  their  eastern  neighbor.  But 
Chili  will  find  in  the  Argentines  a  more  formidable  foe  than 
the  nation  has  yet  met,  and  her  generals  will  have  some  of 
the  conceit  taken  out  of  them  if  the  armies  of  the  two  ever 
come  into  collision.  Although  the  Argentine  Republic  is  mak¬ 
ing  more  rapid  strides  towards  national  greatness,  there  is  no 


474 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA, 


STATUE  OK  BERNARD  OHIGGINS,-  SANTIAGO. 


doubt  that  at  present,  in  all  the  conditions  of  modern  civiliza¬ 
tion,  Chili  leads  the  Southern  Continent,  and  is  the  most  pow¬ 
erful  of  all  the  republics  in  America  except  our  own.  Her 
statesmen  are  wise  and  able,  her  people  are  industrious  and 
progressive,  and  have  that  strength  of  mind  and  muscle  which 
is  given  only  to  the  men  of  temperate  zones.  There  is  a 
strong  similarity  between  the  Chillanos  and  the  Irish.  Both 
have  the  same  wit  and  reckless  courage,  the  same  love  of 
country  and  patriotic  pride  ;  and  wherever  a  Chillano  goes 
he  carries  his  opinion  that  there  never  was  and  never  can  be 
a  better  land  than  that  in  Avkich  he  was  born ;  and  although 
he  may  be  a  refugee  or  an  exile,  he  will  fight  in  defence  of 


SANTIAGO. 


475 


Chili  at  the  drop  of  the  hat.  There  is  something  refreshing 
in  his  patriotism,  even  if  it  be  the  most  arrogant  vanity.  Our 
people  are  becoming  ashamed  of  their  Fourth  of  July,  and  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  is  the  butt  of  professional  jokers. 
The  Chillano  will  cut  the  throat  of  a  man  who  will  not  cele¬ 
brate  with  him  the  18th  of  September,  his  Independence  Day  ; 
and  there  is  a  law  in  the  country  requiring  every  house  to 
have  a  flag-staff,  and  every  flag-staff  to  bear  the  national  col¬ 
ors — a  banner  by  day  and  a  lantern  by  night — on  the  anniver¬ 
saries  of  the  republic.  All  the  schools  must  use  text-books  by 
native  authors,  all  the  bands  play  the  compositions  of  native 
composers,  and  visiting  opera  and  concert  singers  are  com¬ 
pelled  to  vary  their  performances  by  introducing  the  songs 
of  the  country.  It  is  said  that  a  Frenchman  can  never  be 
denationalized.  The  same  is  true  of  the  Chillano.  There  has 
not  been  a  successful  revolution  in  Chili  since  1839 ;  and  al¬ 
though  there  is  nowhere  a  more  unruly  and  discordant  people, 
nowhere  so  much  murder  and  other  serious  crimes,  in  their 
love  of  country  the 
haughty  don  and  the 
patient  peon,  the  hunt¬ 
ed  bandit  and  the  cruel 
soldier,  are  one. 

Many  of  the  leading 
men  of  Chili  are  and 
have  been  of  Irish  de¬ 
scent.  Barney  O’Hig¬ 
gins  was  the  liberator, 
the  George  Washing¬ 
ton  of  the  republic,  and 
Patrick  Lynch  was  the 
foremost  soldier  of 
Chili  in  the  late  war. 

The  O’Learys  and  Mc- 
Garrys  and  other  Chil- 
lano-Irish  families  are 
prominent  in  politics 


476 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  war  and  trade.  There  is  a  sympathetic  bond  between 
the  shamrock  and  the  condor,  and  nowhere  in  South  Amer¬ 
ica  does  the  Irish  emigrant  so  prosperously  thrive,  Chil- 
lano  wit  is  proverbial.  The  jolly,  care-for-nothing  peasant  is 
the  same  there  as  upon  the  old  sod,  and  the  turgid,  grandilo¬ 
quent  style  of  literature  which  prevails  in  other  portions  of 
Spanish- America  in  Chili  finds  a  substitute  in  the  soul-stirring, 
fervid  oratory  which  is  one  of  the  gifts  of  the  Irish  race.  A 
Chilian o  driver  who  was  beating  a  mule  was  remonstrated 
with.  The  man  looked  up  and  remarked  that  it  was  the 
most  obstinate  animal  he  ever  drove.  “  The  beast  thinks  he 
ought  to  have  been  a  bishop,”  he  said. 

The  vanity  of  the  Chillano  passes  all  comprehension.  The 
officers  of  the  army  and  navy  actually  offered  their  services, 
through  the  British  minister,  to  England  when  there  was  a 
minor  of  war  with  Russia ;  and  with  the  slightest  encourage¬ 
ment  they  would  be  willing  to  take  the  domestic  as  well  as 
the  international  complications  off  the  hands  of  the  British 
cabinet.  One  day  the  English  paper  at  \  alparaiso  published 
a  satire,  announcing  that  the  Lords  of  the  Admiralty  had 
selected  three  leading  Chillano  naval  officers  to  command  the 
Bosporus,  the  Baltic,  and  the  North  Atlantic  fleets.  The  offi¬ 
cers  as  well  as  the  people  would  not  accept  the  bogus  cable¬ 
gram  as  a  joke  until  the  next  issue  of  the  paper,  in  which  it 
was  explained;  and  the  former  were  actually  polishing  up 
their  swords  and  uniforms  to  take  their  new  commands. 

The  Chillano  is  not  only  vain  but  cruel— as  cruel  as  death, 
lie  carries  a  long  curved  knife,  called  a  curvo,  as  the  Italian 
carries  a  stiletto  and  the  negro  a  razor,  and  uses  it  to  cut 
throats.  lie  never  fights  with  his  fists,  and  knows  not  the 
use  of  the  shillalah;  he  never  carries  a  revolver,  and  is  noth¬ 
ing  of  a  thug;  but  as  a  robber  or  bandit, in  a  private  quanel 
or  a  public  mob,  he  always  uses  this  deadly  knife,  and  spiings 
at  the  throat  of  his  enemy  like  a  blood-hound.  There  is  scarce¬ 
ly  an  issue  of  a  daily  paper  without  one  or  two  throat-cutting 
incidents,  and  in  the  publications  succeeding  feast  -  days  or 
carnivals  their  bloody  annals  fill  columns. 


PEONS  OF  CHILI. 


SANTIAGO. 


479 


As  a  soldier  the  Chillano  is  brave  to  recklessness,  and  a 
sense  of  fear  is  unknown  to  him.  lie  will  not  endure  a  siege, 
nor  can  he  be  made  to  fight  at  long  range ;  but  as  soon  as  he 
sees  the  enemy  he  fires  one  volley,  drops  his  gun,  and  rushes 
in  with  his  curvo.  His  endurance  is  as  great  as  his  courage, 
and  no  North  American  Indian  can  travel  so  fa£  without  rest 
or  go  so  long  without  food  and  water  as  the  Chillano  peon,  or 
roto ,  as  the  mixed  race  is  called.  As  the  cholo  in  Peru  is  the 
descendant  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  Incas,  so  is  the  roto  in 
Chib  the  child  of  the  Spaniards  and  the  Araucanian  Indians, 
the  race  of  giants  with  which  the  early  explorers  reported 
that  Patagonia  was  peopled — ■“  Menne  of  that  bigginess,”  as 
Sir  Francis  Drake  reported,  “that  it  seemed  the  trees  of  the 
forests  were  uprooted  and  were  moving  away.”  They  have 
the  Spanish  tenacity  of  purpose,  the  Indian  endurance,  and  the 
cruelty  of  both.  The  Peruvian  soldier  uses  artificial  stimu¬ 
lants,  and  carries  on  his  breast  two  buckskin  bags.  In  one  are 
the  leaves  of  the  coca-plant,  in  the  other  powdered  lime  made 
of  the  ashes  of  potato-skins.  The  coca  is  the  strongest  sort 
of  a  tonic,  and  by  chewing  it  the  Peruvian  soldier  can  abstain 
from  food  or  drink  for  a  week  or  ten  days  at  a  stretch.  He 
takes  a  bunch  of  leaves  as  big  as  a  quid  of  tobacco  in  his 
mouth,  and  occasionally  mixes  the  potato-ashes  with  the  saliva 
to  give  the  juice  a  relish.  Canon  Kingsley,  in  that  remark¬ 
able  novel,  “Westward  Ho!”  describes  two  of  the  band  of 
Amyas  Leigh  as  deserting  their  companions  at  the  sources  of 
the  Amazon,  and  takes  them  into  a  beautiful  bower  with  two 
Dianas  of  the  Indian  type.  There  they  chew  coca-leaves  with 
the  girls,  sink  into  a  voluptuous  stupor,  and  give  themselves 
up  to  love,  like  the  lotos-eaters,  until  Amyas  comes  to  remon¬ 
strate.  The  men  recommend  him  to  follow  their  example 
with  the  Yenus  who  has  been  found  in  an  Indian  queen  and 
admires  the  young  commander ;  and  the  Puritan  is  on  the 
point  of  yielding  to  the  fascination  of  the  scene,  when  a  rep¬ 
tile  comes,  strangles  one  of  the  girls,  and  revives  the  moral 
instincts  of  the  men.  The  reverend  word-painter  was  misin¬ 
formed  as  to  the  peculiar  influence  of  the  drug,  as  it  does  not 


480 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


produce  a  stupor  in  those  who  use  it.  It  is  not  a  narcotic,  bnt 
a  stimulant. 

The  Chillano  soldier  is  not  easily  subjected  to  discipline, 
and  outvandals  the  Vandals  in  the  destruction  of  property, 
as  the  present  condition  of  Peru  will  prove.  He  burns  and 
destroys  everything  within  his  reach  that  has  sheltered  an 
enemy.  No  authority  can  restrain  his  hand.  The  awful  scenes 
of  devastation  that  took  place  have  nothing  to  parallel  them 
in  the  annals  of  modern  warfare.  On  the  battle-fields  nine- 
tenths  of  the  dead  were  found  with  their  throats  cut,  and  the 
Chi  llanos  took  no  prisoners  except  when  a  whole  army  capit¬ 
ulated.  They  ask  no  quarter  and  give  none.  The  knowledge 
of  this  characteristic,  and  the  fear  of  the  Chillano  knife,  were 
powerful  factors  in  the  subjugation  of  the  more  humane  Pe¬ 
ruvians. 

The  Chillanos  are  cruel  to  beasts  as  well  as  to  men. 
Horses  are  very  cheap  in  Chili.  A  good  native  broncho  can 
be  purchased  for  live  dollars,  and  his  owner  knows  no  mercy. 
The  beasts  are  driven  until  they  drop,  and  then  new  ones  are 
sought  and  subjected  to  the  same  treatment.  Xo  care  is  taken 
to  protect  or  make  the  animals  comfortable.  Although  the 
weather  is  usually  cold,  stables  for  horses  or  cattle  are  almost 
unknown.  When  their  labor  is  over  they  are  turned  into  a 
corral,  or  a  pasture,  or  the  street,  to  seek  their  own  food. 

The  Chillanos  are  also  careless  of  machinery.  While  they 
are  quick  to  learn,  and  have  much  native  mechanical  ingenu¬ 
ity,  they  cannot  be  trusted  as  machinists.  The  magnificent 
cruiser  Esmeralda,  one  of  the  finest  ships-of-war  afloat,  was 
built  in  England  for  the  Chillian  Government  at  a  cost  of  one 
and  a  half  million  dollars,  but  she  had  not  been  in  the  hands 
of  native  engineers  six  weeks  before  her  engines  needed  re¬ 
pairs  and  her  boilers  were  ruined.  In  1885,  during  the 
troubles  between  England  and  Russia,  she  was  chartered  by 
the  British  Government,  but  afterwards  returned  to  Chili. 
The  Chillanos  have  a  line  of  steamers  running  from  Val¬ 
paraiso  iip  and  down  the  coast.  They  are  the  finest  ships 
on  the  Pacific,  built  on  the  Clyde,  with  all  modern  improve- 


SANTIAGO. 


481 


ments,  but  the  engineers  and  captains  are  Englishmen  or 
Scotchmen.  The  Government  owns  and  manages  the  rail¬ 
roads  in  the  republic,  but  the  locomotive  drivers  are  for¬ 
eigners.  At  one  time  there  was  a  public  outcry  against  the 
employment  of  so  many  foreigners,  and  before  a  recent  Pres¬ 
idential  election  they  were  all  discharged  for  political  effect, 
but  when  the  campaign  was  over  they  were  all  re-employed, 
and  passenger  travel  was  again  resumed.  On  all  railroads 
are  heavy  grades  and  dangerous  curves,  requiring  the  great¬ 
est  care  on  the  part  of  locomotive  drivers.  The  reckless 


THE  “ESMERALDA.” 

Chillano  thinks  it  great  fun  to  run  a  train  down  a  grade  at 
full  speed,  and  a  collision  is  his  delight.  He  enjoys  seeing 
things  smashed  up,  and  knows  nothing  of  the  necessity  of 
operating  trains  on  schedule  time. 

In  trade  the  Chillano  is  a  Yankee.  At  market  or  in  the 
native  shops  the  buyer  is  not  expected  to  pay  the  price  first 
asked.  He  is  expected  to  enter  into  a  negotio,  and  the  seller 
is  disappointed  if  he  loses  an  opportunity  to  show  his  shrewd¬ 
ness  in  the  barter.  There  is  no  regularly  established  price 
for  any  article.  A  market-woman  will  ask  two  dollars  for  a 
31 


■4S2 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


basket  of  fruit  for  which  she  expects  to  get  fifty  cents.  She 
will  haggle  and  chatter,  plead  and  remonstrate,  and  if  you 
start  towards  another  stall,  will  abandon  half  a  dozen  other 
customers  and  follow  you  around,  until  she  finally  “  splits  the 
difference,”  and  goes  away  smiling  at  her  success.  The  trav¬ 
eller  meets  with  this  experience  everywhere,  particularly  at 
the  posadas ;  and  the  only  safe  way  to  avoid  being  merciless¬ 
ly  swindled  is  to  make  a  bargain  in  writing  beforehand. 

Most  of  the  hotel-keepers  are  women,  whose  husbands  are 
engaged  in  other  occupations ;  but  all  the  servants,  including 
the  cooks  and  chamber-44  maids,”  are  men.  There  are  better 
cooks  and  better  classes  of  food  than  in  other  South  Ameri¬ 
can  countries,  and  one  seldom  fails  to  find  a  good  inn  even  in 
the  country  villages.  The  markets  of  Chili,  too,  are  better. 
The  beef,  mutton,  and  other  meats  have  the  flavor  that  is 
found  only  in  temperate  climates ;  the  fish  are  not  so  rank 
and  coarse  as  those  caught  in  tropical  waters ;  and  while  veg¬ 
etation  is  not  so  prolific,  the  fruits  of  the  earth  have  a  finer 
taste.  There  are  oysters  equal  to  those  of  New  Orleans  or 
Mobile,  clams  and  lobsters,  and  plenty  of  shrimps,  called 
camcirons. 

Another  oddity  is  the  milk  stations.  At  distances  of  a  few 
blocks  on  all  but  the  principal  business  streets  is  a  platform 
where  a  cow  is  tied,  which  is  milked  to  order  by  a  dairy¬ 
maid  whenever  a  customer  calls.  On  a  table  near  by  are  found 
measures,  cans,  and  glasses,  and  often  a  bottle  of  brandy,  so 
that  a  thirsty  man  can  mix  a  glass  of  punch  if  he  chooses.  In 
the  morning  these  stands  are  surrounded  by  servants  from  the 
aristocratic  houses,  women  and  children,  with  cups  and  buck¬ 
ets,  awaiting  their  turn ;  and  as  fast  as  one  cow  is  exhausted 
another  is  driven  upon  the  platform. 

The  scarcity  of  lumber  has  caused  the  poorer  classes  to 
use  corrugated  sheet  -  iron  as  a  building  material,  while  the 
rich  use  stone  for  exterior  walls,  and  sun-dried  brick  or  adobe 
for  partitions.  There  are  whole  blocks  in  Valparaiso  in  which 
nothing  but  corrugated  -  iron  houses  can  be  seen,  both  roof 
and  walls  being  of  the  same  material.  It  is  said  to  bear  the 


SANTIAGO. 


483 


effects  of  earthquakes  well.  People  expect  an  earthquake 
about  once  in  ten  days  the  year  round,  and  more  frequently 
during  the  changes  of  season ;  but  great  damage  is  seldom 
done.  There  are  two  kinds  of  earthquake,  the  terremoto  and 
the  temblor.  The  latter  is  only  a  quivering  or  shaking  of  the 
ground,  and  is  quite  common ;  the  other  describes  the  convul¬ 
sions  of  the  earth  when  it  cracks  and  rolls  like  the  swell  of 
the  sea,  overthrows  cities,  and  buries  towns  in  their  own 
ruins.  Valparaiso  and  Santiago  have  never  known  any  of 
the  latter  sort,  which  are  confined  to  the  mountain  districts 
and  the  neighborhood  of  volcanoes. 

There  are  more  comforts  among  the  people  than  elsewhere 
upon  the  continent,  and  a  higher  degree  of  taste,  as  is  shown 
by  the  articles  offered  for  sale  in  the  shops  as  well  as  in  the 
houses  of  the  residents,  which  is  owing  in  a  great  degree  to 
the  example  of  the  large  foreign  population.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Trumbull,  who  has  been  in  Chili  forty-five  years,  says  that  he 
has  noticed  a  marked  change  in  this  respect  within  the  last 
decade,  and  has  seen  a  gradual  and  permanent  growth  in  re¬ 
finement  and  honesty. 

In  Chili,  as  in  all  the  Spanish- American  countries,  every 
man  and  woman  is  named  after  the  saint  whose  anniversary 
is  nearest  the  day  on  which  he  or  she  was  born,  and  that  saint 
is  expected  to  look  after  the  welfare  of  those  christened  in  his 
or  her  honor.  These  names  sound  well  in  Spanish,  but  when 
they  come  to  be  translated  into  unpoetic  English  there  is  an 
oddity,  and  often  something  comical,  about  them.  For  exam¬ 
ple,  the  name  of  the  recent  President  of  Chili  is  Domingo  San¬ 
ta  Maria — which,  being  interpreted,  means  Sunday  St.  Mary. 
The  name  of  the  President  of  Ecuador  is  Jesus  Mary  Caama- 
no  (apple),  and  that  of  the  Governor  of  the  Province  of  Val¬ 
paraiso  is  Domingo  Torres  (Sunday  Bull).  A  waiter  at  the 
hotel  happened  to  be  a  Christmas  gift  to  his  parents,  whose 
family  name  was  Vaca  (cow),  and  in  honor  of  the  day  they 
called  him  Jesu  Christo  Vaca.  Such  blasphemy  would  not  be 
tolerated  in  any  other  country ;  but  the  use  of  the  Saviour’s 
name  is  very  common,  even  upon  the  signs  of  stores  and  sa- 


484 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


loons  in  cities,  and  in  the  nomenclature  of  the  streets.  I  met 
a  girl  once  whose  name  was  Dolores  Digerier  (sorrowful 
stomach). 

In  Chili  women  are  employed  not  only  as  street-car  con¬ 
ductors,  but  they  do  all  the  street-cleaning,  and  gangs  of  them 
with  willow  brooms  sweeping  the  dirt  into  the  ditches  can  be 
seen  by  any  one  who  has  curiosity  enough  to  get  up  at  day¬ 
light.  They  occupy  the  markets,  too,  selling  meats  as  well  as 
vegetables.  On  the  streets  they  keep  fruit-stands,  and  have 
canvas  awnings  under  which,  if  you  choose,  you  can  sit  and 
eat  watermelons,  a  fruit  much  esteemed  in  Chili.  Outside 
of  the  cities  the  women  keep  the  shops  and  the  drinking- 
places,  and  do  all  the  garden  work.  The  laundry  work  is 
done  at  public  fountains,  as  in  other  of  the  Spanish- American 
countries ;  but  the  washer-women  of  Chili  do  not  go  almost 
naked,  as  some  of  their  neighbors  do. 

The  native  Peruvian,  the  descendant  of  the  ancient  Incas, 
has  learned  nothing  since  the  Conquest,  and  has  forgotten 
most  of  the  arts  his  fathers  knew,  among  them  being  the 
process  by  which  the  ancient  race  rendered  copper  as  hard  as 
steel.  Thousands  of  dollars  have  been  offered  for  that  secret 
by  modern  bidders,  but  it  is  lost  forever,  and  the  ingenuity 
and  knowledge  of  modern  chemists  cannot  discover  the  proc¬ 
ess.  The  modern  Inca  wears  the  same  blanket,  or  poncho, 
made  of  vicuna  hair,  that  his  fathers  did,  and  the  same  shoes 
made  of  raw  hide.  lie  lias  rougher  roads  to  travel  than  has 
the  native  of  Central  America,  hence  his  shoe  is  made  to  curl 
over  on  the  sides  and  behind,  so  as  to  protect  the  toes  and  the 
heel  from  contact  with  the  rocks.  It  is  cut  in  a  single  piece 
from  hide  when  green,  and  is  made  to  curl  by  stretching  it 
over  a  primitive  sort  of  last  and  keeping  it  in  position  until  dry. 
The  shoe  is  attached  to  the  foot  by  a  thong,  which  passes 
along  the  entire  top  of  the  shoe,  laced  through  holes  cut  in 
the  hide,  and  ending  at  the  heel  intivo  strips,  which  are  secured 
around  the  ankle.  The  evolution  of  the  native  shoe  is  found  in 
Chili ;  and  although  it  lacks  the  maturity  and  sanctity  of  age, 
which  the  Peruvian  article  enjoys,  is  a  rather  more  nobby 


INCA  QUEEN  AND  PRINCESS. 


SANTIAGO. 


487 


affair.  The  sole  is  made  of  wood,  rudely  cut  by  hand  with  a 
knife,  and  over  the  instep  passes  a  piece  of  patent  leather  reach¬ 
ing  from  the  toes  to  the  ankle,  which  is  nailed  to  the  sole  by 
rows  of  brass-headed  tacks.  The  toes  and  heel  are  entirely 
without  protection,  and  it  requires  a  great  deal  of  experience 
to  keep  the  shoe  on.  It  is  worn  in  the  coldest  weather,  over 
a  very  heavy  and  thick  stocking  knit  of  llama  wool,  and  an 
uglier  pair  of  feet  and  legs  than  are  shown  by  the  short- 
skirted  peasant  women  of  Chili  were  never  seen.  The  men 
wear  the  same  sort  of  shoe — not  quite  so  fancy  in  design  nor 
of  such  fine  materials,  however ;  but  as  they  spend  most  of 
their  time  in  the  saddle  it  is  not  so  bad. 

The  Croesus  of  South  America  is  a  woman,  Donna  Isadora 
Cousino,  of  Santiago,  Chili,  and  there  are  few  men  or  women 
in  the  world  richer  than  she.  There  is  no  end  to  her  money 
and  no  limit  to  her  extravagance,  and  the  people  call  her  the 
Countess  of  Monte  Cristo.  She  traces  her  ancestry  back  to 
the  days  of  the  Conquest,  and  has  the  record  of  the  first  of 
her  fathers  who  landed  early  on  the  shores  of  the  New  World. 
His  family  was  already  famous,  for  his  sire  fought  under  the 
ensign  of  the  Arragons  before  the  alliance  with  Castile.  But 
the  branch  of  the  family  that  remained  in  Spain  was  lost  in 
the  world’s  great  shuffle  two  or  three  centuries  ago,  and  none 
of  them  distinguished  themselves  sufficiently  to  get  their  por¬ 
traits  into  the  collection  which  Sefiora  Cousino  hai  made  of 
the  lineage  she  claims. 

Like  her  own,  the  ancestors  of  her  late  husband  came  over 
in  the  early  days,  and  in  the  partition  of  the  lands  and  spoils 
of  the  Conquest  both  got  a  large  share,  which  they  kept  and 
increased  by  adding  the  portions  given  to  their  less  thrifty 
and  less  enterprising  associates,  until  the  two  estates  became 
the  largest,  most  productive,  and  most  valuable  of  all  the  ha¬ 
ciendas  of  Chili,  and  were  finally  united  into  one  by  the  mar¬ 
riage,  twenty-four  years  ago,  of  the  late  Don  and  his  surviving 
widow.  While  he  lived  he  was  considered  the  richest  man  in 
Chili,  and  she  the  richest  woman,  for  their  property  was  kept 
separate,  the  husband  managing  his  estate  and  the  wife  her 


488 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


own,  and  the  people  say  that  she  was  altogether  the  better 
“  administrator  ”  of  the  two.  This  fact  he  acknowledged  in 
his  will  when  he  bequeathed  all  of  his  possessions  to  her,  and 
piled  his  Pelion  upon  her  Ossa ;  so  that  she  has  millions  of 
acres  of  land,  millions  of  money ;  flocks  and  herds  that  are 
numbered  by  the  hundreds  of  thousands ;  coal,  copper,  and 
silver  mines ;  acres  of  real  estate  in  the  cities  of  Santiago  and 
Valparaiso ;  a  fleet  of  iron  steamships,  smelting-works,  a  rail¬ 
road,  and  various  other  trifles  in  the  way  of  productive  prop¬ 
erty,  which  yield  her  an  income  of  several  millions  a  year  that 
she  tries  very  hard  to  spend,  and  under  the  circumstances  suc¬ 
ceeds  as  well  as  could  be  expected.  From  her  coal-mines 
alone  Sen  ora  Cousino  has  an  income  of  eighty  thousand  dol¬ 
lars  a  month ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  this  should  not  be 
perpetual,  as  they  are  the  only  source  in  all  South  America 
from  which  fuel  can  be  obtained,  and  those  who  do  not  buy  of 
her  have  to  import  their  coal  from  Great  Britain.  She  has  a 
fleet  of  eight  iron  steamships,  of  capacities  varying  from  two 
thousand  to  three  thousand  six  hundred  tons,  which  were 
built  in  England,  and  are  used  to  carry  the  coal  up  the  coast 
as  far  as  Panama,  and  around  the  Strait  of  Magellan  to 
Buenos  Ayres  and  Montevideo.  At  Lota  she  has  copper  and 
silver  smelting -works,  besides  coal-mines,  and  her  coaling 
ships  bring  ore  down  the  coast  as  a  return  cargo  from  upper 
Chili,  Peru,  and  Ecuador;  while  those  that  go  to  Buenos 
Ayres  bring  back  beef  and  flour  and  merchandise  for  the  con¬ 
sumption  of  her  people. 

Although  Lota  is  only  a  mining  town,  as  dirty  and  smoky 
as  any  of  its  counterparts  in  Pennsylvania,  it  is  the  widow's 
favorite  place  of  residence,  and  she  is  now  building  a  mansion 
that  will  cost  at  least  a  million  dollars.  The  architect  and  the 
chief  builder  are  Frenchmen,  whom  she  imported  from  Paris, 
and  much  of  the  material  is  also  imported.  Not  long  ago  she 
shipped  a  cargo  of  hides  and  wool  in  one  of  her  own  steamers 
to  Bordeaux,  and  it  is  to  return  laden  with  building  supplies 
for  this  mansion.  She  herself  has  no  time  to  go  across  the 
sea,  but  the  captain  of  her  ship  will  bring  with  him  deco- 


SANTIAGO. 


489 


rators  and  designers  and  upholstery  men,  who  will  finish  the 
interior  of  her  mansion  regardless  of  expense. 

The  structure  stands  in  the  centre  of  what  is  undoubtedly 
the  finest  private  park  in  the  world — an  area  of  two  hundred 
and  fifty  acres  of  land  laid  out  in  the  most  elaborate  manner, 
containing  statuary,  fountains,  caves,  cascades,  and  no  end  of 
beautiful  trees  and  plants.  The  improvement  of  the  natural 
beauty  of  the  place  is  said  to  have  cost  Sen  ora  Cousino  nearly 
a  million  dollars,  and  she  has  a  force  of  thirty  gardeners  con¬ 
stantly  at  work.  The  superintendent  is  a  Scotchman,  and  he 
informed  me  that  his  orders  were  to  make  the  place  a  para¬ 
dise,  without  regard  to  cost.  In  this  park  there  are  many 
wild  animals  and  domesticated  pets,  some  of  which  are  na¬ 
tives  of  the  country,  others  imported;  and  the  flowers  are 
something  wonderful. 

Senora  Cousino  has  another  park  and  palace  an  hour’s 
drive  from  Santiago,  the  finest  estancia  in  Chili,  perhaps  in 
all  South  America ;  nor  do  I  know  of  one  in  North  America 
or  Europe  that  will  equal  it.  This  is  “  Macul,”  and  the  es¬ 
tate  stretches  from  the  boundaries  of  the  city  of  Santiago 
far  into  the  Cordilleras,  whose  glittering  caps  of  everlasting 
snow  mark  the  limit  of  her  lands.  In  the  valleys  are  her 
fields  of  grain,  her  orchards,  and  her  vineyards,  while  in  the 
foot-hills  of  the  mountains  her  flocks  of  sheep  and  herds  of 
cattle  feed.  Here  she  gives  employment  to  three  or  four  hun¬ 
dred  men,  all  organized  under  the  direction  of  superintend¬ 
ents,  most  of  whom  are  Scotchmen.  She  has  in  her  employ 
at  “  Macul  ”  one  American,  whose  business  is  that  of  a  gen¬ 
eral  farmer ;  but  his  time  is  mostly  occupied  in  teaching  the 
natives  how  to  operate  labor-saving  agricultural  machinery. 

Farming  in  Chili  is  conducted  very  much  as  it  was  in  Eu¬ 
rope  in  old  feudal  times,  each  estate  having  its  retainers,  who 
are  given  houses  or  tenements,  and  are  paid  for  the  amount 
of  labor  they  perform.  It  is  said  that  Senora  Cousino  can  mar¬ 
shal  a  thousand  men  from  her  two  farms  if  she  needs  them. 
The  vineyard  of  “  Macul  ”  supplies  nearly  all  the  markets  of 
Chili  with  claret  and  sherry  wines,  and  the  cellar  of  the  place, 


490 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


an  enormous  building  five  hundred  feet  long  by  one  hundred 
wide,  is  kept  constantly  full.  Senora  Cousino  makes  her 
own  bottles,  but  imports  her  labels  from  France.  On  this 
farm  she  has  some  very  valuable  imported  stock,  both  cattle 
and  horses,  and  her  racing  stable  is  the  most  extensive  and 
successful  in  South  America.  She  takes  great  interest  in  the 
turf,  attends  every  racing  meeting  in  Chili,  and  always  bets 
very  heavily  on  her  own  horses.  At  the  last  meeting  her 
winnings  are  reported  to  have  been  over  one  hundred  thou¬ 
sand  dollars  outside  of  the  purses  won  by  her  horses,  which 
are  always  divided  among  the  employes  of  the  stables. 

In  addition  to  “  Macul  ”  Senora  Cousino  has  another  large 
estate  about  thirty  miles  from  Santiago ;  but  she  gives  it  very 
little  attention,  and  has  not  been  there  for  a  number  of  years. 
In  the  city  she  has  two  large  and  fine  houses,  one  of  them 
being  the  former  residence  of  Ilenry  Meiggs — the  finest  in 
Santiago  at  the  time  it  was  built.  All  the  timber  and  other 
materials  used  in  its  erection  was  brought  from  California. 
It  is  built  mostly  of  red  cedar.  The  construction  and  archi¬ 
tecture  are  after  the  American  plan,  and  in  appearance  and 
arrangement  it  resembles  the  villas  of  Newport. 

The  other  city  residence  of  Senora  Cousino  is  a  stone  man¬ 
sion  erected  on  the  Spanish  plan,  with  a  court  in  the  centre, 
and  is  ornamented  with  some  very  elaborate  carving.  The 
interior  was  decorated  and  furnished  many  years  ago  by  Pa¬ 
risian  artists  at  an  enormous  cost,  and  the  house  is  fitting  for 
a  king.  There  is  no  more  elaborate  or  extensive  residence 
in  America,  and  the  money  expended  upon  it  would  build  as 
fine  a  house  as  that  of  W.  H.  Vanderbilt  in  New  York.  The 
widow,  however,  spends  but  very  little  time  within  its  walls,  as 
she  prefers  her  home  at  Lota,  where  most  of  her  business  is. 

Her  ability  as  a  manager  is  remarkable,  and  she  directs 
every  detail,  receiving  weekly  reports  from  ten  or  twelve  su¬ 
perintendents  who  have  immediate  charge  of  affairs.  While 
she  is  generous  to  profligacy,  she  requires  a  strict  account 
of  every  dollar  earned  or  spent  upon  her  vast  estates,  and  is 
very  sharp  at  driving  a  bargain.  One  of  her  Scotch  super- 


SANTIAGO. 


491 


her  rentals  amount  to  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
She  is  also  the  principal  stockholder  in  the  largest  bank  in 
Santiago.  Not  long  ago  she  presented  the  people  of  that  city 
with  a  park  of  one  hundred  acres,  and  a  race-course  adjoin¬ 
ing  it. 


intendents  told  me  that  there  was  no  use  in  trying  to  get 
ahead  of  the  senora.  “You  cannot  move  a  stone  or  a  stick 
but  she  knows  it,”  he  said.  In  addition  to  her  landed  prop¬ 
erty  and  her  mines  she  owns  much  city  real  estate,  from  which 


SENORA  COUSINO. 


492 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Fabulous  stories  of  the  senora’s  extravagance  are  told.  A 
million  of  dollars  is  a  trifle  to  a  woman  whose  income  is  so 
enormous,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  world  that  she  will  not 
buy  if  she  happens  to  want  it.  She  does  not  care  much  for 
art,  but  has  a  collection  of  diamonds  that  is  very  large  and 
valuable,  and  she  sometimes  appears  loaded  down  with  them. 
Usually  she  looks  quite  shabby,  as  she  has  no  taste  or  ambi¬ 
tion  for  dress,  and  her  party  toilets,  which  are  ordered  from 
Paris,  are  seldom  worn.  Of  late  she  has  been  a  sufferer  from 
sciatica,  which  has  not  only  destroyed  the  senora’s  own  pleas¬ 
ure,  but  has  seriously  impaired  the  comfort  of  those  who  have 
relations  with  her.  Although  a  comparatively  young  woman, 
being  somewhere  between  forty-five  and  fifty  years  of  age,  she 
declares  that  she  will  never  marry  again ;  and  there  is  not  a 
map.  in  Chili  who  has  the  courage  to  ask  her.  Not  long  since 
she  took  a  fancy  to  a  young  German  with  a  very  blond  beard 
and  hair,  and  insisted  that  he  should  give  up  his  business  and 
make  his  home  with  her.  The  inducements  she  offered  were 
sufficient,  and  for  several  months  the  young  man  has  been 
tied  to  her  apron-strings,  having  the  ostensible  employment 
of  a  private  secretary.  But  the  senora  is  very  fickle,  and  will 
probably  throw  him  overboard,  as  she  has  many  others,  w hen 
the  whim  seizes  her. 

Senora  Cousino  has  two  daughters  and  one  son.  Neither 
of  the  girls  inherits  her  mother’s  business  ability,  or  at  least 
has  not  developed  it ;  but  they  are  very  popular  in  society. 
Senorita  Isadora,  the  elder,  has  a  great  deal  of  musical  talent, 
and  performs  on  the  violin  and  piano.  Both  are  bright  and 
pretty.  One  is  about  seventeen,  and  the  other  nineteen  years 
of  age.  Their  brother,  a  young  man  of  twenty-three  or  twen¬ 
ty-four,  will  share  the  property  with  them.  It  is  quite  an 
unusual  thing  for  a  youth  with  so  much  money  to  develop  the 
business  capacity  and  industry  which  he  shows.  He  looks 
after  the  estancia  at  “  Macul,”  and  spends  from  six  to  eight 
hours  a  day  in  the  saddle,  riding  about  the  place.  He  seldom 
joins  in  the  festivities  that  his  mother  enjoys  so  much,  and  is 
quite  pronounced  in  his  disapproval  of  her  extravagance.  He 


SANTIAGO. 


493 


is  to  marry  a  young  lady  of  rather  humble  station,  and  it  is 
expected  that  the  Meiggs  mansion,  which  has  been  previously 
described,  will  be  presented  to  the  bride  by  his  mother  as  a 
wedding-gift. 

The  struggle  between  the  Catholic  Church  and  the  liberal 
progressive  element  in  Chili,  which  has  been  going  on  for  a 
number  of  years,  is  now  at  its  height.  In  all  of  the  nations 
of  Central  and  South  America  a  similar  struggle  has  occurred. 
In  Mexico  and  all  Central  America,  in  Colombia,  Venezuela, 
Peru,  Chili,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  Uruguay  the  Lib¬ 
erals  are  uppermost,  and  have  control  of  the  State.  Ecua¬ 
dor  and  Bolivia  are  still  in  the  hands  of  the  priests,  and  are 
ruled  at  Rome.  But  even  in  these  republics  there  is  a  grow¬ 
ing  tendency  towards  liberalism,  and  the  day  will  soon  arrive 
when  the  power  of  the  Church  in  politics  will  be  overcome, 
and  its  authority  over  temporal  affairs  denied.  The  Clerical 
party  is  growing  in  Peru.  It  has  revived  during  the  prostra¬ 
tion  of  that  republic,  and  although  the  liberal  element  is  still 
in  power,  the  Government  is  so  weak  that  it  cannot  defy  the 
Church  as  it  once  could.  Therefore,  the  priests  and  monks 
and  Jesuits,  who  were  driven  out  years  ago,  are  returning  in 
large  numbers  to  resume  their  authority  over  the  common 
people  and  intrigue  for  an  administration  favorable  to  them. 

In  Chili  there  has  been  no  confiscation  of  church  property, 
as  in  some  of  the  other  States,  and  at  the  capital  there  are 
still  over  two  thousand  monks  and  as  many  nuns.  The  Jesu¬ 
its  have  been  expelled  for  engaging  in  conspiracy  against  the 
Government,  but  the  outer  orders  of  friars  are  permitted  to 
remain..  A  dispute  between  the  archbishop  and  the  Presi¬ 
dent  some  years  ago  caused  the  former  to  retire  from  Chili, 
and  the  Pope  sent  over  a  nuncio  to  try  and  arrange  matters ; 
but  this  legate  criticised  the  Government  so  severely  from 
the  pulpit  that  he  was  given  a  passport  and  an  escort  of  mili¬ 
tary,  and  now  there  are  no  relations  whatever  between  the 
Pope  and  Chili,  although  the  Catholic  faith  is  still  recognized 
by  the  Constitution  as  the  established  religion  of  the  republic. 
The  radical  element  of  the  Liberal  party  favors  extreme  meas- 


494 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ures,  but  the  Conservative  faction,  of  which  Ex -President 
Santa  Maria  is  the  leader,  wisely  prefers  to  take  steps  slowly, 
and  avoid  revolution. 

The  Liberal  party  has  a  majority  in  Congress,  and  has  pass¬ 
ed  several  laws  by  which  the  authority  and  influence  of  the 
Church  has  been  greatly  crippled.  The  Liberal  majority  in 
Congress  has  placed  the  appointment  of  bishops  in  the  hands 
of  the  President  of  the  republic  instead  of  the  Pope ;  it  has 
declared  civil  marriage  to  be  the  only  legal  one ;  it  has  open¬ 
ed  the  cemeteries  to  Jew  and  Gentile ;  taken  the  registers  of 
births,  marriages,  and  deaths  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Church, 
and  given  them  to  civil  magistrates ;  established  non  -  secta¬ 
rian  schools,  and  passed  a  compulsory  education  law,  under 
which  all  citizens  who  send  their  children  to  the  priests  and 
nuns  to  be  taught  have  to  pay  a  tax  or  fine  to  the  State. 
These  measures  have  all  been  bitterly  fought  by  the  clergy, 
but  they  have  been  compelled  to  yield  in  every  instance. 
Just  now  the  last  act  of  Congress  in  this  direction,  estab¬ 
lishing  civil  marriage,  and  recognizing  the  legitimacy  of  only 
those  children  born  of  parents  wedded  in  this  way,  is  the  bone 
of  contention,  and  has  caused  the  bitterest  struggle  which  the 
State  has  seen. 

It  formerly  cost  twenty -five  dollars  to  be  married  by  the 
Church,  and  a  large  part  of  its  revenues  came  from  that  source. 
The  peons,  who  scarcely  ever  are  able  to  accumulate  so  much 
money,  therefore  lived  in  a  state  of  concubinage,  and  more 
than  half  the  children  born  in  Chili  were  illegitimate.  Now 
a  marriage  certificate  can  be  secured  from  a  civil  magistrate 
for  twenty-five  cents,  and  persons  cohabiting  without  it  are 
subject  to  fine  and  imprisonment.  The  archbishop  has  issued 
a  decree  excommunicating  from  the  Church  all  persons  who 
are  married  by  the  civil  right,  and  the  Catholics  of  the  coun¬ 
try,  comprising  ninety -nine  per  cent,  of  the  population,  are  in 
a  serious  dilemma.  They  are  compelled  to  choose  between 
excommunication  and  imprisonment,  and  therefore  in  the  up¬ 
per  classes  weddings  are  no  longer  fashionable.  Some  people 
go  first  to  the  church  and  then  to  the  magistrate,  and  run  the 


SANTIAGO. 


495 


risk  of  excommunication ;  but  the  more  conscientious  prefer 
to  remain  single. 

Just  now  in  Santiago  there  is  a  young  man  of  brilliant  at¬ 
tainments,  a  member  of  Congress  and  a  leader  of  the  Liberal 
party,  who  wants  to  marry  the  daughter  of  a  prominent  mer¬ 
chant.  The  engagement  has  been  existing  for  several  years, 
and  both  parties  are  willing  to  fulfil  it  according  to  a  civil  law ; 
but  the  girl’s  mother  is  a  devout  Catholic,  and  will  not  con¬ 
sent  to  a  wedding  without  the  blessing  of  a  priest.  The  young- 
man  is  willing  to  go  to  the  church  as  well  as  to  the  magis¬ 
trate,  but  the  archbishop  has  forbidden  any  priest  to  marry 
him  without  a  full  retraction  by  him  of  his  political  record. 
This  he  refuses  to  make,  and  the  couple  are  preparing  to  go 
to  the  United  States  or  some  European  country  to  have  the 
ceremony  performed. 

Hot  long  ago  there  was  a  marriage  in  high  life  in  one  of 
the  southern  provinces  of  Chili,  which  attracted  wide  atten¬ 
tion  from  the  fact  that  it  was  the  first  defiance  of  the  Church 
in  that  part  of  the  country.  On  the  Sunday  following  the 
wedding  the  couple  were  denounced  by  the  bishop  from  the 
pulpit  of  the  cathedral,  and  the  Catholic  newspaper  published 
some  brutal  comments  to  the  effect  that  the  young  couple 
had  placed  themselves  on  the  level  of  beasts  by  cohabiting 
without  the  blessing  of  the  Church.  The  bride’s  brother  bela¬ 
bored  the  editor  so  that  he  will  be  a  cripple  for  fife,  and 
would  have  given  the  bishop  a  similar  chastisement  had  not 
the  latter  kept  out  of  the  way. 

At  the  last  Presidential  election,  which  occurred  in  June, 
1886,  Senor  Balmaceda,  the  Liberal  candidate,  was  elected  to 
succeed  President  Santa  Maria,  who  had  served  his  full  term 
of  four  years.  He  was  bitterly  opposed  by  the  priests,  who 
realized  that  his  success  would  be  their  permanent  discomfit¬ 
ure,  and  there  were  several  serious  riots,  in  which  many  were 
killed  and  wounded.  But  Balmaceda  was  peacefully  inaugu¬ 
rated  in  September,  and  the  Congress  which  assembled  at  the 
same  time  has -an  overwhelming  majority  in  sympathy  with 
the  Administration.  The  issue  at  the  election  was  the  enforce- 


496 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


raent  of  the  civil  marriage  statute,  and  some  measures  Avill  be 
taken  to  reduce  the  Church  to  subjection.  A  law  to  expel 
from  the  country  priests  who  intimidate  citizens  from  obey¬ 
ing  the  civil  marriage  act  has  already  been  proposed.  This  will 
be  open  Avar  ;  but  priests  who  threaten  to  excommunicate  Avill 
be  sent  into  exile,  where  they  Avill  shortly  be  followed  by  the 
monks  and  nuns,  and  a  general  confiscation  of  church  prop¬ 
erty  Avill  be  the  next  step.  It  is  estimated  that  one-third  of 
the  entire  property  in  Chili  is  owned  by  the  Church.  Much 
of  this  property  is  held  in  trust  for  certain  saints,  to  Avhom  it 
has  been  bequeathed  by  devout  persons,  or  purchased  by  the 
gifts  of  the  people.  Saint  Dominic,  for  example,  is  one  of  the 
largest  property-holders  in  South  America,  and  has  an  income 
of  more  than  a  million  dollars  a  year  from  his  estates,  Avhich 
are  ably  managed  by  the  Dominican  friars.  It  is  proposed  to 
assess  a  tax  upon  these  estates,  which  now  pay  nothing  tow¬ 
ards  the  support  of  the  Government ;  and  if  the  monks  refuse 
to  pay,  the  property  will  be  confiscated. 

Protestantism  is  making  rapid  progress  in  Chili.  There  are 
several  missions  under  the  care  of  the  Presbyterian  Board  of 
the  United  States,  and  a  number  of  self-supporting  churches 
and  schools.  There  is  also  a  Presbyterian  College  and  Theo¬ 
logical  Seminary,  and  a  Young  Ladies’  Seminary  with  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  boarding  scholars;  but  the  common 
people  still  cling  to  the  superstitions  and  practices  of  the  past. 
Crucifixes  upon  Avhich  the  bodies  of  bleeding  Christs  are  dis¬ 
played,  with  all  the  symbols  of  the  Crucifixion — the  sponge, 
hammer,  nails,  spear,  and  other  implements — are  erected  in  the 
public  streets.  They  are  accompanied  by  an  announcement 
from  the  archbishop  that  Avlioever  says  a  certain  number  of 
prayers  at  these  places  will  receive  total  absolution  for  all 
past  sins. 

A  beautiful  marble  monument  has  been  erected  on  the  site 
of  the  church  Avhich  Avas  burned  about  twenty  years  ago  on 
the  Feast  of  the  Virgins.  As  usual  on  that  day,  high  mass 
Avas  celebrated  by  the  bishop,  and  at  this  particular  church, 
which  Avas  that  of  the  patron  saint  of  maidens,  there  was  a 


SANTIAGO. 


497 


A  BELLE  OF  CHILI  DRESSED  FOR  MORNING  MASS. 


very  large  attendance  of  girls  from  all  classes  of  society. 
The  church  was  handsomely  draped,  and  cords  to  which  can¬ 
dles  were  hung  were  stretched  between  the  pillars.  Being 
32 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


•198 


insecurely  placed,  these  burning  candles  fell  into  the  crowd 
below  and  set  the  clothing  of  the  girls  on  fire.  There  was  a 
panic,  and  the  entire  crowd  became  jammed  against  the  doors, 
which,  folding  inward,  could  not  be  opened.  The  roof  caught 
fire  and,  burning,  fell  with  crushing  destruction  upon  the  heads 
of  those  below.  The  priests  took  no  means  to  rescue  the  wor¬ 
shippers,  but  managed  to  get  out  unharmed  themselves,  car¬ 
rying  with  them  all  the  plate  and  other  valuable  contents  of 
the  altar.  Their  cowardice  and  neglect  were  universally  con¬ 
demned,  and  they  were  compelled  to  leave  the  country. 

It  is  not  known  how  many  lives  were  lost,  and  the  inscrip¬ 
tion  upon  the  monument — which  stands  in  the  centre  of  a 
plaza  occupying  the  sice  of  the  church — gives  no  clew ;  but 
it  is  estimated  that  at  least  three  thousand  young  ladies  per¬ 
ished,  and  there  was  mourning  in  almost  every  house  in  San¬ 
tiago.  After  the  fire  the  bodies  were  found  packed  in  a  solid 
mass  of  flesh,  the  heads  and  upper  portions  of  the  forms  being- 
destroyed,  while  the  limbs  and  lower  portions  of  the  bodies 
were  uninjured.  Since  that  calamity  the  Feast  of  the  Virgins 
has  been  celebrated  with  mourning  in  Chili. 

It  is  one  of  the  rules  of  the  Church  that  no  women  shall 
participate  in  the  services  except  as  silent  worshippers.  All 
the  music  and  singing  is  given  by  men,  usually  monks,  who 
are  well  trained.  Sometimes,  as  on  Easter  or  Christmas,  when 
mass  is  celebrated  with  more  than  usual  magnificence,  opera- 
singers  of  both  sexes  are  introduced  into  the  choir  to  assist  in 
the  performance;  but  the  women  are  compelled  to  dress  in  the 
clothes  of  men,  for  fear  of  offending  St.  Paul  or  some  other 
anti-woman's  rights  potentate  by  wearing  petticoats. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  fishing  season  at  Valparaiso  it  is 
customary  to  take  the  image  of  St.  Peter,  the  patron  of  fish¬ 
ermen,  in  a  boat  and  row  it  over  the  bay,  in  order  to  bless 
the  fish;  and  those  who  expect  to  reap  the  reward  of  this  pat¬ 
ronage  are  highly  taxed  to  pay  for  this  performance.  Every 
method  by  which  money  may  be  extorted  from  the  people,  ev¬ 
ery  pretence  which  their  ingenuity  can  invent,  is  practised  by 
the  priests  to  enrich  the  Church,  and  the  funds  are  wasted  by 


SANTIAGO. 


499 


them  in  riotous  living.  Their  looks  are  sufficient  to  convict 
them  of  the  gluttony  and  libertinism  of  which  they  are  ac¬ 
cused,  and  it  is  a  common  thing  to  see  them  reeling  through 
the  streets  in  a  state  of  intoxication. 

In  the  wall  of  one  of  the  handsomest  residences,  by  the 
side  of  the  main  entrance,  is  a  niche  in  which  a  statue  of  the 
Mother  of  Christ  has  been  placed — a  gaudy,  tinsel  -  covered 
figure,  with  a  halo  of  gas-jets  and  a  mantle  of  gilt-embroid¬ 
ered  satin.  An  iron  grating  protects  the  image  from  the 
street,  but  through  the  bars  have  been  thrust  garlands  of 
flowers  and  gifts  of  various  sorts— -votive  offerings  from  peo¬ 
ple  in  bodily  distress  or  mental  disorder.  The  lady  who  lives 
in  this  house,  the  wife  of  a  wealthy  native  merchant,  some 
years  ago  became  very  ill,  and  made  a  vow  to  the  Virgin 
that  if  her  health  was  restored  she  would  show  her  gratitude 
in  this  manner ;  and  there  the  statue  stands  to  illustrate  the 
woman’s  piety.  Almost  daily  people  who  are  ill,  as  its  own¬ 
er  was,  and  others  in  distress  of  mind  from  some  cause  or 
another,  come  to  it  with  such  offerings  as  their  condition  per¬ 
mits  them  to  make,  and  trustfully  appeal  to  the  Holy  Mother 
for  relief.  It  is  said  that  many  miraculous  cures  have  resulted 
from  faith  in  the  power  of  this  image,  and  people  always  lift 
their  hats  and  reverently  cross  themselves  as  they  pass  it  by. 

The  13th  of  May  is  the  anniversary  of  the  most  destructive 
earthquake  Santiago  has  ever  seen,  which  occurred  about 
forty  years  ago.  The  responsibility  for  the  calamity  lay  with 
a  woman  who  had  a  private  saint,  a  household  idol,  to  whom 
she  offered  prayers.  This  image  deemed  fit  to  withhold  from 
her  some  favor  she  had  asked,  and  she,  angry,  cast  it  violently 
into  the  street.  This  caused  the  earthquake !  and  it  did  not 
cease  until  the  fear  -  stricken  people  took  the  image  to  the 
Church  of  St.  Augustine,  near  by,  where  it  was  placed  in  a 
niche  of  honor,  and  has  since  been  devoutly  worshipped  by 
them  as  the  patron  or  preventer  of  earthquakes.  For  the 
lack  of  a  better  name,  and  because  the  image  bears  no  re¬ 
semblance  to  any  saint  that  was  ever  known  or  told  of,  the 
people  call  him  “  Sefior  May.”  Originally  he  was  “  Sen  or 


500 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


Thirteenth  of  May,”  but  now  plain  “  Senor  May,”  for  short. 
Each  year,  as  the  13th  of  May  comes  round  —  the  anniver¬ 
sary  of  his  “martyrdom,”  as  the  people  call  it — the  entire 
population  assemble  to  pay  honor  to  the  saint,  and  appeal 
for  his  intercession  in  preventing  a  recurrence  of  the  earth¬ 
quake,  and,  as  everybody  knows,  these  appeals  ,  have  never 
been  denied.  “  Senor  May  ”  protects  the  city  at  least  one  day 
in  the  year.  As  the  church  is  not  large  enough  to  accom¬ 
modate  the  multitude,  the  saint  is  taken  out  into  the  street 
and  carried  at  the  head  of  a  procession,  in  which  the  bishop, 
the  municipal  authorities,  companies  of  military,  religious  or¬ 
ders,  and  others  march.  The  occasion  is  recognized  by  the 
Government  and  the  municipality,  and  by  commercial  circles. 
Business  houses  are  closed,  and  factories  dismiss  their  work¬ 
men  to  take  part  in  the  ceremonies.  The  day  is  celebrated  as 
universally  as  Thanksgiving  Day  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  saint  receives  rich  gifts  from  people  who  are  grateful  that 
their  houses  have  not  been  shaken  to  pieces. 

I  was  present  at  the  celebration  in  1S85.  First  in  the 
procession  came  a  squad  of  policemen  to  clear  the  way,  for 
the  entire  population  was  jammed  into  the  streets ;  and  in 
the  windows  and  upon  the  roofs  of  houses  the  nobility  and 
gentry  of  the  city  stood,  watching  the  performance  as  eager¬ 
ly  as  the  gamins  of  the  streets,  and  throwing  garlands  and 
bunches  of  flowers  into  the  path  over  which  “Senor  May” 
was  to  pass.  Men  fought  and  cursed,  struck  and  stabbed  each 
other  in  the  struggle  to  do  homage  to  the  image,  and  all  the 
police  in  the  city  were  present  to  preserve  order  and  arrest 
disturbers  of  the  solemn  scene.  The  Government  offices  were 
closed,  and  the  President  himself,  the  leader  of  the  anti- 
Church  party,  did  not  go  to  the  palace. 

Following  the  policemen  came  a  line  of  monks  in  cowls 
and  frocks  of  all  colors.  There  were  monks  in  white,  monks 
in  black,  monks  in  gray,  and  monks  in  brown — Carmelites, 
Capuchins,  Franciscans,  and  every  order  being  represented. 
Then  came  a  procession  of  pi’iests  in  their  vestments,  with  no¬ 
vitiates,  each  bearing  a  lighted  candle  and  chanting  some  mo- 


SANTIAGO. 


501 


notorious  service.  Behind  them  were  a  dozen  altar-boys,  some 
with  incense-lamps  which  perfumed  the  air,  and  others  with 
trays  of  flowers,  which  were  scattered  in  the  street  for  the 
bishop,  who  came  next,  to  tread  upon.  He  walked  under  a 
crimson  canopy,  wearing  his  most  resplendent  vestments,  and 
bearing  in  his  hands  the  Host — the  Holy  Sacrament — the 
body  and  blood  of  the  Bedeemer.  Behind  him  were  other  in¬ 
cense-burners,  and  more  boys  with  flowers.  Then  came,  borne 
upon  the  shoulders  of  twenty  men,  the  image  of  “  Senor  May  ” 
— an  ugly  and  repulsive-looking  effigy,  draped  with  the  most 
fantastic  garments,  rich  embroideries,  and  much  gold  lace. 
Upon  the  pedestal  were  packages  and  caskets  containing  the 
offerings  received  that  day ;  and  as  he  passed  along  one  and 
another  would  be  added,  handed  from  the  houses  or  the 
crowd  to  the  priests  of  St.  Augustine’s  Church,  who  sur¬ 
rounded  the  image  to  collect  them. 

The  crowd  fell  upon  their  knees  as  this  ghastly  feature  of 
fanaticism  passed  by.  Every  head  was  uncovered,  and  every 
reverent  tongue  murmured  a  prayer.  Men  pushed  and  strug¬ 
gled,  women  screamed,  and  the  policemen  struck  forward  and 
backward  with  their  swords  to  prevent  the  people  from  surg¬ 
ing  into  the  streets.  Then  came  more  chanting  priests,  and  an¬ 
other  battalion  of  monks,  then  more  incense -bearers,  and  a 
spectacle  of  even  greater  repulsiveness — an  image  of  a  bleed¬ 
ing  Christ  upon  a  crucifix,  naked,  with  the  drapery  of  a 
ballet-dancer  about  his  loins !  More  priests  and  more  monks, 
and  then  a  band  of  music  and  a  regiment  of  infantry  in 
parade  uniforms,  followed  by  a  long  line  of  bareheaded  men, 
each  with  a  lighted  candle  in  his  hand.  This  part  of  the 
procession  received  large  and  continual  additions.  People 
from  the  crowd  fell  into  line  at  the  rear,  and  were  fur¬ 
nished  with  candles  by  attendants,  who  carried  boxes  of  them 
in  a  cart,  until  the  line  reached  out  for  a  mile  or  more.  After 
the  parade  the  images  were  returned  to  the  Church  of  St. 
Augustine,  where  high  mass  was  celebrated  by  the  bishop,  to 
which  admission  was  secured  only  by  ticket. 

The  next  morning  the  newspapers  contained  long  descrip- 


502 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tions  of  the  procession.  The  contest  then,  as  now,  going  on 
between  the  Liberal  party  and  the  clerical  element  for  polit¬ 
ical  control  gives  the  utterances  of  the  official  organ  of  the 
Government  (Liberal)  peculiar  significance.  I  quote  the  brief 
paragraphs  in  which  reference  was  made  to  the  event  of  the 
month : 

“  The  procession  of  ‘  Sefior  May  ’  took  place  yesterday,  ac¬ 
companied  by  many  religious  festivities  in  the  temple  of  St. 
Augustine.  The  people  and  the  municipality  joined  with  the 
church  to  give  a  transcendent  recognition  in  a  most  solemn 
and  impressive  manner  of  the  historic  ‘Sefior  May.’  From 
the  early  hours  of  the  day  the  surroundings  of  the  temple  of 
St.  Augustine  were  occupied  by  great  throngs  of  the  faithful, 
who  awaited  the  inauguration  of  the  parade.  A  little  before 
four  o’clock  there  arrived  the  forces  of  the  army,  with  the 
national  band  at  their  head,  and  took  position  in  front  of  the 
church  in  accordance  with  the  orders  from  the  commander- 
in-chief  of  the  army. 

“  Having  been  put  in  motion,  the  procession  tiled  with  diffi¬ 
culty  through  the  great  number  of  people  who  crowded  the 
streets  and  followed  with  many  prayers  and  significant  re¬ 
joicing.  The  pedestals  of  the  saints  were  beautifully  adorned 
and  covered  with  many  valuable  and  votive  offerings,  the  ten¬ 
der  gifts  of  piety  from  the  faithful.  A  committee  from  the 
municipal  authorities,  appointed  to  contribute  to  the  solemni¬ 
ty  of  the  occasion,  participated  in  the  ceremonies.  The  bands 
of  music  played  various  sentimental  airs  during  the  march. 

“  To  resume,  the  acts  of  recognition  to  the  most  potent 
*  Sefior  May,’  made  in  compliance  with  the  vows  of  the  year 
1 S47,  after  the  terrible  catastrophe  of  the  13th  of  the  present 
month,  have  been  perfectly  carried  out  by  the  Catholic  capi¬ 
tal  of  Chili.” 

Farming  in  Chili  is  conducted  on  the  old  feudal  system, 
very  much  as  it  is  in  Ireland.  The  country  is  divided  into 
great  estates  owned  by  people  who  live  in  the  cities,  and  sel¬ 
dom  visit  the  haciendas.  There  are  only  two  classes  of  peo¬ 
ple,  the  very  rich  and  the  very  poor,  the  landlords  and  the 


SANTIAGO. 


503 


tenants.  On  each  estate  are  a  number  of  cottages  with  gar¬ 
den  patches  around  them,  which  are  occupied  by  the  ten¬ 
ants,  and  in  payment  for  which  the  landlord  is  entitled  to 
so  many  days’  labor  each  year  at  his  option.  Should  more 
labor  than  is  due  be  required  of  the  tenant,  he  is  paid  for 
it,  not  in  money,  but  in  orders  upon  the  supply  store  or 
commissary  of  the  estate,  where  he  can  get  clothing  or  food 
or  rum  —  especially  rum.  Tenants  are  usually  given  small 
credits  at  these  stores,  and  are  kept  in  debt  to  the  land¬ 
lords.  As  the  law  prohibits  them  from  leaving  a  landlord  to 
whom  they  owe  money,  the  poor  are  kept  in  perpetual  sla¬ 
very,  like  the  party  in  mythology  who  was  always  rolling  a 
stone  uphill.  Even  under  this  cruel  system  of  peonage  mas¬ 
ter  and  slave  usually  get  along  pretty  well  together,  but  old- 
fashioned  feudal  wars  are  kept  up  between  estates,  as  was 
the  case  in  England  centuries  ago.  The  peon  will  always 
fight  for  his  landlord,  and  bloody  encounters  are  constantly 
occurring.  There  are  in  Chili  to-day  the  same  old  family 
feuds  that  existed  in  the  Middle  Ages  of  Europe  between  the 
Montagues  and  the  Capulets.  Somebody  stepped  upon  the 
coat-tails  of  somebody  else,  or  kicked  his  poodle  dog,  away 
back  in  the  early  history  of  the  country,  and  the  two  families 
have  been  slashing  and  hacking  at  each  other  ever  since, 
while  nobody  can  explain  what  it  is  all  about.  The  tenant 
will  always  cut  a  throat  in  his  master’s  honor,  but  he  can 
never  get  any  richer  in  Chili  than  he  is  to-day. 

Everybody  goes  on  horseback ;  even  the  beggars  ride.  The 
gear  of  the  Chili  saddle-horse — and  horses  are  seldom  broken 
to  harness,  all  the  teaming  being  done  with  oxen — is  a  most 
curious  and  complicated  affair.  The  bit  is  a  long,  heavy,  flat 
piece  of  iron,  which  rests  on  the  horse’s  tongue,  and  presses 
against  the  roof  of  his  mouth.  At  each  end  is  a  hole,  through 
which  is  passed  a  large  iron  ring  about  four  inches  in  diame¬ 
ter,  which  encircles  the  lower  jaw.  At  each  side  of  the  mouth 
is  placed  another  iron  ring  to  which  the  reins  are  fastened. 
The  whole  affair  weighs  about  five  pounds,  and  is  sufficiently 
powerful  to  break  a  horse’s  jaw  if  suddenly  jerked.  The  reins 


504 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


are  made  of  line-plaited  hide  or  horse-hair,  about  the  thickness 
of  the  forefinger,  and  are  joined  together  when  they  reach  the 
pommel  of  the  saddle,  terminating  in  a  long  lash  called  a  chi- 
cote,  at  the  end  of  which  is  either  a  handsome  tassel  or  a 
small  piece  of  lead.  When  not  in  use  the  chicote  hangs  down 
the  dank  of  the  horse,  often  dragging  on  the  ground.  Some¬ 
times  the  load  of  lead  is  heavy,  and  furnishes  a  weapon  of 
offence  and  defence  as  formidable  as  a  slung-shot,  and  the 
poor  horse  is  often  beaten  with  it  without  mercy.  Fancy 
bits  are  made  of  plated  or  solid  silver,  and  bridles  plated 
with  gold,  with  reins  made  of  golden  wire,  can  be  found  in 
the  larger  cities.  I  saw  a  bridle  in  Chib,  belonging  to  Seuo- 
ra  Cousino,  that  is  said  to  have  cost  two  thousand  dve  hun¬ 
dred  dollars ;  and  one  often  hears  of  gifts  of  this  sort  that  are 
worth  one  thousand  dollars  or  more. 

The  Chili  saddle  is  even  more  queer  and  complicated  than 
the  bridle.  First,  six  or  seven  sheepskins  are  placed  upon  the 
horse’s  back,  one  on  top  of  the  other ;  a  leather  strap  is  passed 
around  them  and  firmly  secuVed  ;  a  skeleton  saddle,  or  rather 
a  piece  of  wood  cut  in  the  shape  of  a  saddle-tree,  with  a  can- 
tie  at  each  end,  comes  next,  and  on  top  of  this  any  number  of 
sheepskins ;  or,  if  the  owner  is  rich,  rare  furs  furnish  a  seat, 
which  is  called  the  montura.  The  four  corners  are  fastened 
down  by  broad  leather  straps,  ornamented  with  silver  or  brass 
buckles,  to  enable  the  rider  to  wedge  himself  in,  and  the 
whole  is  bound  around  the  horse's  belly  with  a  broad  band  of 
leather  or  canvas.  Sometimes  aristocratic  and  wealthy  riders 
have  a  high  pommel  like  that  of  the  Mexican  saddle,  which  is 
covered  with  silver,  and  stamped  on  the  top  with  his  family 
coat  of  arms.  The  amount  of  silver  Qn  a  man's  riding  equip¬ 
ment  is  understood  to  indicate  his  wealth  aud  station  in  life, 
and  there  is  a  great  deal  of  competition  in  this  direction 
among  the  swell  Caballeros.  The  stirrups  of  the  ordinary  cit¬ 
izen  are  made  of  two  huge  pieces  of  wood,  with  a  hole  cut 
through  for  the  foot,  while  those  of  the  aristocrat  are  brass  or 
silver  slippers.  The  wooden  affair,  the  poor  man's  stirrup,  is 
rudely  cut  out  of  oak,  or  other  hard  wood,  by  hand,  and  usu- 


SANTIAGO. 


505 


ally  weighs  as  much  as  four  or  five  pounds.  The  brass  one 
is  quite  as  heavy,  but  much  more  ornamental. 

When  the  rider  is  seated  in  the  saddle  his  legs  are  entire¬ 
ly  concealed  by  the  furs  and  sheepskins,  which  add  to  his 
warmth,  and  on  his  back  he  wears  the  poncho  of  the  country, 
which  is  the  most  comfortable  and  convenient  garment  that 
human  ingenuity  has  ever  produced.  It  is  about  the  size  of 
the  rubber  poncho  used  in  the  United  States,  but  is  woven  of 
vicuna  hair  or  lamb’s-wool,  and  keeps  the  wearer  cool  by  day, 
as  the  rays  of  the  sun  cannot  penetrate  it,  and  warm  by 
night.  It  answers  as  well  for  an  umbrella  as  for  an  overcoat, 
and  sheds  the  rain  better  than  rubber,  for  the  oil  is  not  ex¬ 
tracted  from  the  wool  of  which  it  is  made.  The  vicuna  is  the 
mountain-goat  of  the  Andes,  but  is  becoming  scarce,  and  now¬ 
adays  a  vicuna  poncho  is  as  rare  and  expensive  as  a  camel’s- 
hair  shawl,  which  it  very  much  resembles,  being  worth  from 
one  hundred  and  fifty  to  five 
hundred  dollars.  A  fully 
equipped  saddle-horse  of  a 
caballero,  or  gentleman,  with 
vicuna  poncho  and  spurs  of 
silver,  with  saddle  and  bridle 
mounted  with  the  same  metal, 
often  represents  an  invest¬ 
ment  of  four  or  five  thousand 
dollars.  Very  often  the  stir¬ 
rup  is  made  of  solid  silver, 
beautifully  chased,  and  those 
used  by  ladies  are  generally 
so.  The  English  manufact¬ 
urers  are  able  to  produce  the  ornaments  and  stirrups  so 
much  cheaper  than  the  native  workmen,  who  have  no  labor- 
saving  machinery,  that  nearly  all  are  now  imported,  and  they 
have  succeeded  in  imitating  the  poncho  very  well  too.  But 
among  the  aristocrats  it  is  considered  the  height  of  vulgarity 
to  use  modern  English  saddlery  or  the  imitation  poncho,  for 
theca  articles  have  been  handed  down  from  generation  to  gen- 


506 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


eration,  and  the  older  they  are  the  more  valuable,  no  sort  of 
usage  wearing  them  out. 

In  Guatemala  I  was  presented  with  a  pair  of  stirrups  which 
had  been  worn  by  the  cavalry  of  Cortez  when  they  made  their 

raid  into  Central  Amer¬ 
ica  and  conquered  that 
continent  in  1535.  This 
pair  was  handed  down 
from  generation  to  gen¬ 
eration,  in  the  family  of 
Mr.  Sanchez,  the  “  Min¬ 
ister  of  Hacienda,”  or 
Finance,  of  the  Guate¬ 
mala  Government :  they 
are  made  of  iron,  with 
wide  flanges  to  protect 
the  feet  and  legs  of  the 
cavalier  from  the  high 
grass  and  brambles  of 
the  country  through 
which  he  had  to  ride. 
This  style  was  long  ago 
abandoned,  and  is  now 
only  seen  in  museums. 

He  who  wishes  to 
make  the  journey  from 
the  Chilian  to  the  Argen¬ 
tine  Republic  and  the 
east  coast  of  South 
America  has  a  choice 
of  routes.  He  may  go 
by  sea,  around  through 
the  Strait  of  Magellan, 
which  will  cost  him  fif¬ 
teen  days’  time  and  two  hundred  dollars  in  money,  or  he  may 
climb  over  the  Andes  on  the  back  of  a  mule,  a  journey  of  five 
days,  three  of  which  only  are  spent  in  the  saddle  amid  some 


OVER  THE  ANDES. 


MOUNT  ACONCAGUA. 


SANTIAGO. 


509 


TJSPALLATA  PASS. 


of  the  grandest  scenery  in  the  world.  The  highest  mountain 
in  the  Western  Hemisphere  is  Aconcagua,  which  rises  22,415 
feet  above  the  sea  to  the  northward  from  Y  alparaiso  and  San¬ 
tiago,  and  in  plain  view  from  both  cities  when  the  weather 
is  clear.  Chimborazo  was  for  a  long  time  supposed  to  be  the 
king  of  the  Andes,  and  in  the  geographies  published  twenty 


510 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


years  ao-o  it  is  described  as  the  highest  summit  in  the  world. 
No  one  has  ever  reached  the  peak  of  either  mountain,  owing 
to  the  depth  of  snow  and  impassable  gorges,  but  recent  meas¬ 
urements,  taken  by  means  of  triangulation,  give  Aconcagua 
an  excess  of  about  2000  feet  over  old  “  Chimbo.”  Scientists 
have  reached  an  altitude  higher  than  the  summit  of  either 
in  the  Himalaya  Mountains  of  India,  where  Mount  Everest 
is  claimed  to  rise  between  27,000  and  30,000  feet.  Humboldt 
made  Chimborazo  famous,  and  very  few  travellers  have  gone 
beyond  the  point  he  reached;  but  no  serious  attempt  has  ever 
been  made  to  explore  the  summit  of  Aconcagua,  as  the  Chi  - 
lanos  do  not  often  go  where  their  horses  cannot  carry  them. 
In  mountain  gloom  and  glory  Chimborazo  is  said  to  surpass 
all  rivals,  standing  as  it  does  within  sight  of  the  sea,  and  sui- 
rounded  by  a  cluster  of  twenty  peaks,  like  a  king  and  his 
counsellors.  But  Aconcagua  is  grand  enough,  and  has  not  - 
ino  near  it  to  dwarf  its  size.  The  latitude  in  which  it  stands 
brino-s  the  snow  line  much  lower  than  upon  Chimborazo  and 
the  other  peaks  of  Ecuador,  which  are  almost  upon  the  line 
of  the  equator,  and  the  purity  of  the  atmosphere  gives  t  le 
spectator  an  opportunity  to  see  its  picturesqueness  at  a  long 

From  Santiago,  Chili,  there  is  a  Government  railway  as  la 
as  the  town  of  Santa  Rosa,  which  passes  around  the  base  of 
Aconcagua,  and  furnishes  the  traveller  with  a  most  sublime 
panorama  of  mountain  scenery.  There  mules  and  men  are 
hired  for  the  ride  over  the  Cumbre  Pass  to  Mendoza,  on  the 
eastern  slope  of  the  Andes,  to  which  a  railroad  has  been  re¬ 
cently  opened  by  the  Argentine  Government.  Here  one  can 
take  a  Pullman  sleeper,  and  ride  to  Buenos  Ayres  as  comfort¬ 
ably  as  he  can  go  from  New  York  to  St.  Louis,  the  distance 

being  about  the  same. 

This  railroad  was  opened  in  May,  1SS5,  with  a  grand  cele¬ 
bration.  in  which  the  Presidents  of  Chili  and  the  Argentine 
Republic,  with  retinues  of  officials,  participated.  The  event 
was  as  important  to  the  commercial  development  of  Argen¬ 
tine  as  was  the  first  Pacific  Railway  to  the  United  States,  as 


SANTIAGO. 


511 


it  opened  to  settlement  millions  of  square  miles  of  the  best 
territory  in  the  republic,  and  furnished  a  highway  between 
the  two  seas.' 

The  people  of  the  United  States  have  very  little  conception 
of  what  is  going  on  down  in  that  part  of  the  world.  They 
do  not  realize  that  there  is  in  Argentine  a  republic  which 


CAUGHT  IN  THE  SNOW. 


some  day  is  to  rival  our  own— a  country  with  immense  re¬ 
sources,  similar  to  those  of  the  United  States,  situated  in  a 
corresponding  latitude,  prepared  to  furnish  the  world  with 
beef  and  mutton  and  bread,  and  stretching  a  net -work  of 
railways  over  its  area  that  will  bring  the  products  of  the 
pampas  to  market.  Geographers  do  not  keep  pace  with  the 
development  of  this  part  of  South  America,  and  to  present 


51?, 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


accurate  accounts  of  its  condition  should  be  rewritten  every 
year.  Who  knows,  for  instance,  except  those  who  have  been 
there,  that  a  man  can  ride  from  Buenos  Ayres  across  the 
pampas  to  the  foot-hills  of  the  Andes  in  a  Pullman  car 

The  late  war  between  Peru  and  Chili  robbed  Bolivia  of  all 
her  sea-coast,  and  the  ports  from  which  her  produce  was 
shipped,  and  at  which  her  imports  were  received,  now  belong 
to  the  Chillanos,  who  charge  heavy  export  and  import  duties. 
The  opening  of  this  railroad  has  caused  the  trade  of  Bolivia 
to  be  diverted  to  the  Atlantic,  and  the  extension  of  the  line 
to  the  northward,  which  is  already  in  progress,  will  make 
Buenos  Ayres  and  other  cities  on  the  river  La  Plata  the  en¬ 
trepots  for  Bolivian  commerce.  It  is  not  much  farther  now 
from  the  centre  of  Bolivia  to  the  Argentine  Bailway  than  to 
the  Pacific  coast,  and  the  feeling  of  resentment  towards  Chili 


ROAD  CUT  IN  THE  KOCKS. 


SANTIAGO. 


513 


makes  the  difference  exceeding  small.  Long  trains  of  mules 
are  passing  up  and  down  the  mountains,  and  their  numbers 
will  constantly  increase  until  the  Pacific  sea-ports  will  see 
nothing  that  is  grown  or  used  in  the  country  which  Chili  so 
ruthlessly  robbed.  One  great  difficulty,  however,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  from  April  to  November  the  mountain  passes  are 
blockaded  with  snow,  and  it  is  always  dangerous,  and  often 
impossible,  to  make  the  journey.  Native  couriers,  who  use 
snow-shoes,  and  find  refuge  in  “  casuchas,”  or  hollows  of  the 
rocks,  during  storms,  cross  them  the  year  round,  carrying  the 
mails.  Sometimes,  indeed  often,  they  perish  from  exposure 
or  starvation,  or  perhaps  are  buried  under  avalanches.  The 
passes  are  about  thirteen  thousand  feet  high,  and  are  swept 
by  winds  that  human  endurance  cannot  survive.  During  the 


A  STATION  IN  THE  MOUNTAINS. 


33 


514 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


summer  the  journey  is  delightful,  and  though  attended  by 
many  discomforts,  has  its  compensations  to  those  who  aie 
willing  to  rough  it,  and  who  are  fond  of  mountain  scenery 
Ladies  often  venture,  and  enjoy  it,  Not  long  since  a  party  o 
thirteen  school-ma’ams  from  the  United  States,  who  are  teac 
ino-  under  contract  with  the  Argentine  Government,  crossed 
the  mountains  to  Chili,  and  had  “  a  lovely  time.  Plenty 
mules  and  good  guides  can  be  secured  at  the  termini  of  the 
railways,  but  travellers  have  to  carry  their  own  food  and  bed- 
dim-  '  There  are  no  hotels  on  the  way,  but  only  schachs, 
or  fog  houses,  which  furnish  nothing  but  shelter.  V  ery  often 
people  who  are  not  accustomed  to  high  altitudes  are  attache* 
with  sirroche,  from  which  they  sometimes  suffer  severely. 

The  road  over  the  mountains  is  always  dangerous,  clm0  g 
as  if  does  to  the  edge  of  mighty  precipices  and  upon  the  sides 
of  mountain  cliffs,  and  only  trained  mules  can  be  used  on  the 
journey.  During  the  winter  season  the  winds  aie  often  so 
strong  as  to  blow  the  mules  with  their  burdens  o\ei tie 
precipices,  and  leave  them  as  food  for  the  condors  that  a  e 
always  soaring  around.  These  birds  know  the  dangerous 
passes  and  keep  guard  with  the  expectation  of  seemg^ome 
traveller  or  mule  go  tumbling  over  the  chffs  Coulnde 
bridges,  the  construction  of  which  is  not  satisfactory  to  nerv¬ 
ous  men,  stretch  across  the  ravines  after  the  manner  of  mod¬ 
ern  suspension -bridges,  and  a  floor  or  path,  made  of  the 
branches  of  trees  lashed  together  with  hides,  and  just  wide 
enough  for  a  mule  to  pass,  is  laid.  Travellers  usually  I  s 
mount  and  lead  their  mules  when  they  cross  these  fragile 
structures,  for  the  hide  ropes  which  are  intended  to  keep  I * 
nle  from  stepping  off  do  not  look  very  secuie.  The  oscilla 
L  m  of  these1  bridges  is  very  great,  and  a  man  who  is  accus- 
torned  to  giddiness  will  want  to  lie  down  before  le  ge  s 
Inlf  way  over.  It  is  remarkable  that  so  few  accidents  1  - 
,e„  and  when  they  do  occur  it  is  usually  because  a  traveller 
£  Akless  or  a  mule  is  green.  The  foxes  sometimes  gnaw 
the  hides,  but  no  accidents  have  occurred  fiom  this  cause 

for  many  years. 


SANTIAGO. 


515 


The  journey  on  muleback  usually  takes  five  days  of  travel, 
at  the  rate  of  twenty  or  thirty  miles  a  day,  but  good  riders, 
with  relays  of  mules,  often  make  it  in  three  days.  The  whole 
route  is  historical,  as  it  has  been  in  use  for  centuries.  There 


THE  CONDOB. 


is  scarcely  a  mile  without  some  romantic  association,  not  a 
rock  without  its  incident ;  and  tradition,  incident,  and  ro¬ 
mance  line  the  path  from  end  to  end.  The  Incas  used  the 
path  before  the  Spaniards  conquered  the  country,  and  Don 
Diego  de  Almagro  crossed  it  in  1535  as  he  passed  south¬ 
ward  to  Chili  after  the  conquest  of  Peru. 


PATAGONIA. 


The  spinal  column  of  the  hemisphere,  extending  from  the 
Arctic  to  the  Antarctic  Sea,  and  called  the  Cordilleras,  breaks 
suddenly  at  the  foot  of  the  Southern  continent,  and  is  divided 
by  a  narrow  and  deep  ravine  called  the  Strait  of  Magellan. 
Before  the  strait  is  reached,  along  the  western  coast  of  South 
America  are  numberless  islands,  cast  into  the  sea  by  some 
convulsion  of  nature,  like  sparks  flung  from  hammered  iron. 
Few  of  these  islands  have  ever  been  explored,  but  they  all 
bear  a  close  resemblance  to  the  main-land  in  their  geologi¬ 
cal  formation,  and  it  is  believed  that  deposits  of  copper,  silver, 
and  other  minerals,  as  well  as  coal,  exist  under  their  surfaces. 
On  Chiloe,  the  largest  of  the  Chili  archipelago,  mining  com¬ 
panies  are  already  operating  to  a  small  extent,  but  of  the 
resources  of  the 'other  islands  little  or  nothing  is  known. 
They  rise  in  picturesque  outlines  from  the  water,  some  of 
them  to  an  elevation  of  several  thousand  feet,  and  the  pano¬ 
rama  presented  to  voyagers  in  what  is  known  as  Smythe  s 
Channel  is  beautiful  and  grand.  This  is  a  narrow  fiord, 
named  from  its  first  explorer,  scooped  out,  the  geologists  say, 
by  the  action  of  ice  during  the  glacial  epoch,  running  along 
the  main  coast,  and  protected  against  the  violence  of  the 
ocean  by  the  numerous  fragmentary  formations  that  line  the 
shore.  A  glance  at  the  map  of  Patagonia  will  show  how 
many  of  these  islands  there  are.  and  how  slender  is  the 
thread  of  sea  which  separates  them  from  the  continent. 

The  water  in  the  channel  is  deep  and  smooth,  but  the  pas¬ 
sage  is  avoided  by  navigators  because  of  the  powerful  cur¬ 
rents  and  the  frequencv  of  snow-storms,  which  prevail  at  all 
seasons  of  the  year.  Vessels  that  take  this  course  are  com- 


PATAGONIA. 


517 


pelled  to  anchor  at  night,  unless  there  is  a  very  bright  moon, 
and  always  lie  up  when  the  snow  falls,  because  of  the  circui¬ 
tous  turns,  and  the  danger  of  collisions  with  ships  and  ice¬ 
bergs.  Smythe’s  Channel  is  so  narrow  in  places  that  two 
steamers  cannot  pass  between  the  mighty  rocks  which  rise 
on  either  side.  Most  of  the  steamships  prefer  to  risk  the 
storms  which  rage  outside,  where  they  can  have  plenty  of 
sea-room,  and  shorten  their  voyages  by  sailing  at  night  as 


CAPE  FROWARD  (PATAGONIA),  STRAIT  OF  MAGELLAN. 


well  as  by  day.  There  is  no  more  dangerous  sailing  in  the 
world  than  off  the  west  coast  of  Patagonia  and  around  the 
Horn,  and  vessels  bound  southward  from  Y alparaiso  are  very 
lucky  if  they  enter  the  Strait  of  Magellan  without  catching  a 
gale  of  wind. 

The  glaciers  of  Switzerland  and  Norway  are  insignificant 
beside  those  which  can  be  seen  from  ships  passing  the  Strait 
of  Magellan.  Mountains  of  green  and  blue  ice,  with  crests  of 
the  purest  snow,  stretch  fifteen  and  twenty  miles  along  the 


518 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


channel  in  some  parts  of  the  strait.  They  are  by  no  means 
as  lofty  as  those  of  Europe,  but  appear  more  grand,  rising  as 
they  do  from  the  surface  of  the  water  in  a  land  where  winter 
always  lingers,  and  where  the  sun  sets  at  three  o’clock  in  the 
afternoon.  The  line  of  perpetual  snow  begins  at  an  elevation 
of  only  two  thousand  feet,  and  water  always  freezes  at  night, 
even  in  the  summer-time.  The  highest  mountains  in  Terra 
del  Fuego  are  supposed  to  reach  an  altitude  of  seven  thousand 
or  eight  thousand  feet,  but  the  eye  of  man  has  seldom  seen 
them,  covered  as  they  are  with  an  almost  perpetual  haze  or 
mist,  and  presenting  difficulties  which  the  most  ardent  and 
experienced  climber  cannot  surmount.  The  highest  mountain 
known  in  this  region  is  Mount  Sarmiento,  one  of  the  most 
imposing  of  the  Andean  peaks,  which  rears  a  cone  of  spotless 
snojv  nearly  seven  thousand  feet,  almost  abruptly  from  the 
water  at  its  feet.  It  stands  in  what  is  known  as  Cockburn 
Channel,  not  far  from  the  Pacific,  and  on  clear  days  its  sum¬ 
mit  can  be  distinguished  from  the  decks  of  passing  ships.  The 
beauty  of  this  peak  is  much  enhanced  by  numerous  blue-tint¬ 
ed  glaciers,  which  descend  from  the  snowy  cap  to  the  sea,  and 
look,  as  Darwin  the  naturalist,  who  once  saw  it,  said,  “  Like 
a  hundred  frozen  Niagaras.”  There  are  other  mountains  quite 
as  beautiful,  but  they  sit  in  an  atmosphere  which  is  seldom  so 
clear  as  that  which  surrounds  Sarmiento,  and  cannot  often  be 
seen  by  voyagers. 

The  Terra  del  Fuego  Indians,  the  ugliest  mortals  that  ever 
breathed,  are  always  on  the  lookout  for  passing  vessels,  and 
come  out  in  canoes  to  beg  and  to  trade  skins  for  whiskey  and 
tobacco.  The  Fuegians,  or  “  Canoe  Indians,”  as  they  are  com¬ 
monly  called,  to  distinguish  them  from  the  Patagonians,  who 
dislike  the  water,  and  prefer  to  navigate  on  horseback,  have 
no  settled  habitation.  They  have  a  dirty  and  bloated  appear¬ 
ance,  and  faces  that  would  scare  a  mule — broad  features,  low 
foreheads,  over  which  the  hair  hangs  in  tangled  lumps,  high 
cheek-bones,  flat  noses,  enormous  chins  and  jaws,  and  mouths 
like  crocodiles',  with  teeth  that  add  to  their  repulsiveness. 
Their  skin  is  said  to  be  of  a  copper  color,  but  is  seldom  seen, 


PATAGONIA, 


519 


as  they  consider  it  unhealthy  to  bathe.  They  are  short  in 
stature,  round-shouldered,  squatty,  and  swelled,  a  physical  de¬ 
formity  said  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  most  of  their  lives  is 
spent  in  canoes.  The  women  are  even  more  repulsive  in  their 
appearance  than  the  men,  and  the  children,  who  are  uncom¬ 
monly  numerous,  look  like  young  baboons.  Their  intelligence 
seems  to  be  confined  to  a  knowledge  of  boating  and  fishing, 


FUEGIANS  VISITING  A  MAN-OF-WAR. 


and  they  exercise  great  skill  in  both  pursuits.  Scientists  who 
have  investigated  them  say  that  they  are  of  the  very  lowest 
order  of  the  human  kind,  many  degrees  below  the  Digger 
Indians. 

Although  these  people  are  in  a  perpetual  winter,  where  it 
freezes  every  night,  and  always  snows  when  the  clouds  shed 
moisture,  they  go  almost  stark  naked !  The  skins  of  the  otter 


520 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  guanaco  are  used  for  blankets,  which  are  worn  about  the 
shoulders  and  afford  some  protection ;  but  under  these  neither 
women  nor  men  wear  anything  whatever  except  shoes  and 
leo'ofngs  made  of  the  same  material,  w  hich  protect  the  feet 
from  the  rocks.  There  is  some  little  attempt  at  adornment 
made  by  both  sexes  in  the  way  of  necklaces,  bracelets,  and 
ear-rings  made  of  fish-bones  and  sea-shells,  which  are  often 
ingeniously  joined  together.  The  women  will  sell  the  skin 
blankets  that  cover  their  backs  for  tobacco,  standing  mean¬ 
time  as  nude  as  a  statue  of  Venus ! 

Their  food  consists  of  mussels,  fish,  sea  animals,  and  sim¬ 
ilar  sorts,  which  they  catch  with  the  rudest  kind  of  imple¬ 
ments.  Their  fishing-lines  are  made  of  grass,  and  their 
hooks  of  fish-bones.  For  weapons  they  have  bows  and 
spears,  the  former  having  strings  made  of  the. entrails  of 
animals,  and  the  latter  being  long,  slender  poles,  with  tips  of 
sharpened  bone.  They  also  use  slings  with  great  dexterity, 
which  are  made  of  woven  grass,  and  are  said  to  bring  down 
animals  at  long  range.  During  the  day  they  are  always  on 
the  water  in  canoes  or  dugouts  made  of  the  trunks  of  tiees, 
the  whole  family  going  together,  and  usually  consisting  of  a 
man,  two  or  three  wives,  and  as  many  urchins  as  can  be 
crowded  into  the  boat.  When  night  falls  they  go  ashore 
and  build  a  fire  upon  the  rocks,  to  temper  the  frigid  atmos¬ 
phere.  Around  this  fire  they  cuddle  in  a  most  affectionate 
way.  The  name  of  the  islands  upon  which  they  five  came 
from  these  fires.  The  early  navigators,  when  passing  tlnough 
the  strait,  were  amazed  to  see  them  spring  up  as  if  by  magic 
all  over  the  islands  every  night  at  sundown,  and  so  they 
called  them  Terra  del  Fuego,  or  the  Land  of  Fire.  The  Eng¬ 
lish  shorten  the  appellation,  and  thus  the  place  is  known  as 
“  Fireland.” 

No  one  has  ever  been  able  to  ascertain  whether  these  peo¬ 
ple  possess  any  sort  of  religious  belief  or  have  religious  cere¬ 
monies.  Across  the  strait  the  Patagonians,  or  Horse  Indians, 
are  of  a  higher  order  of  creation,  and  perform  sacred  rites  to 
propitiate  the  evil  and  good  spirits,  in  which,  like  the  North 


PATAGONIA. 


521 


American  savages,  they  believe;  but  the  Fuegians  are  too 
degraded*to  contemplate  anything  but  the  necessity  of  min¬ 
istering  to  their  passions  and  appetites.  They  eat  fish  and 
flesh  uncooked,  and  appreciate  as  dainties  the  least  attractive 
morsels.  Their  language  is  an  irregular  and  meaningless 
jargon,  apparently  derived  from  the  Patagonians,  with  whom 
they  were,  some  time  in  the  distant  past,  connected.  Bishop 


A  FUEGIAN  FEAST. 


Sterling,  of  the  Church  of  England,  a  devoted  and  energetic 
man,  who  has  charge  of  missionary  work  in  South  America, 
with  headquarters  on  the  Falkland  Islands,  has  made  some 
attempt  to  benefit  these  creatures,  but  with  no  great  success. 
He  has  a  little  schooner  in  which  he  sails  around,  and  has 
succeeded  in  ingratiating  himself  among  the  Fuegians  by 
giving  them  presents  of  beads  and  twine,  blankets  and  cloth¬ 
ing.  They  use  the  first  for  ornaments,  the  second  for  fishing 


522 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


o-ear,  but  trade  oft  the  other  things  for  rum  and  tobacco  the 
first  chance  they  get.  As  long  as  his  gifts  hold  <>®t  he  will 
be  kindly  received,  no  doubt,  and  his  devotion  will  meet  with 
encouragement,  but  if  lie  should  land  among  them  without 
the  usual  plunder  they  would  probably  kill  linn  at  breakfast¬ 
time  and  pick  his  ribs  for  lunch.  Towards  the  Atlantic  coast 
the  savages  are  of  a  higher  order,  and  the  bishop  lias  estab¬ 
lished  a  missionary  station  in  a  little  town  in  which  they 
live.  His  assistants  have  succeeded  in  persuading  the  inhab¬ 
itants  of  this  village  to  wear  clothing,  and  they  run  a  primary 


school  from  which  much  good  may  come. 

The  Falkland  Islands  lie  off  the  coast  of  Terra  del  Fuego 
about  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles,  and  belong  to  the  British 
crown.  There  is  a  town  of  about  eight  hundred  inhabitants 
called  St.  Louis,  where  the  Governor  lives,  and  a  coaling 
station  is  maintained  for  the  benefit  of  English  men-of-war 
The  chief  use  of  the  islands  otherwise  is  sheep-raismg,  an 
the  wool  exports  are  becoming  quite  large.  Nothing  else 
grows  there,  however,  because  of  the  low  temperature  ant 
Lie  barrenness  of  the  soil.  One  line  of  steamers  touches  at 
the  Falklauds  once  a  month  or  so,  carrying  provisions  to  le 

col  on v  and  bringing  away  the  wool. 

One  of  the  curious  things  about  the  Strait  of  Magellan  is 
the  Post-office.  In  a  sheltered  place,  easy  of  access  from  t  e 
channel,  but  secluded  from  the  Indians,  is  a  tin  box,  known 
to  every  seaman  who  navigates  this  part  ot  the  wc  • 
Every  passing  skipper  places  in  this  box  letters  and  news¬ 
papers  for  other  vessels  that  are  expected  this  way,  and  takes 
out  whatever  is  found  to  belong  to  him  or  his  men.  All  the 
newspapers  and  books  that  seamen  are  done  with  are  depos¬ 
ited  here,  and  are  afterwards  picked  up  by  the  next  vessel  to 
arrive  and  replaced  with  a  new  lot.  It  is  a  sort  of  inter¬ 
national  postal  clearing-house,  and  sailors  say  that  the  advan¬ 
tages  it  offers  have  never  been  abused  during  the  half  century 

the  svstem  has  existed. 

Every  time  a  vessel  passes  through  the  strait  the  Fuegia 
Indians  come  out  in  their  canoes  to  show  their  sociabili  y, 


PATAGONIA. 


523 


and  trade  what  property  they  are  fortunate  enough  to  be 
possessed  of  for  tobacco  and  rum.  The  steamer  we  were 
on  ran  through  several  fleets  of  dugouts,  greatly  to  the  dan¬ 
ger  of  those  who  occupied  them,  as  they  paddled  across  our 
course  in  the  most  reckless  manner.  In  each  of  the  frail 
canoes  were  three  or  four  people  and  several  children,  who 
screamed  and  gesticulated  in  the  most  violent  manner.  They 
came  so  near  the  ship  that  we  could  distinguish  their  feat- 


THE  SIGNS  OF  CIVILIZATION. 


ures  and  hear  their  words,  which  were  clamors  for  tabac  (to¬ 
bacco)  and  galleta .  (food).  In  one  canoe  stood  an  old  hag 
with  long  gray  hair,  and  a  face  that  reminded  me  of  Meg 
Merriles.  A  more  weird  and  witchlike  being  never  presented 
itself  to  human  eye,  and  she  did  not  have  a  thread  upon  her 
dirty  skin  from  head  to  foot.  Stark,  staring  naked  she  stood 
in  the  group  around  her,  with  the  thermometer  about  forty 
degrees  above  zero,  and,  as  she  saw  the  vessel  did  not  propose 


524 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


to  stop,  shook  her  wrinkled  arms  at  us,  and  uttered  curses 
loud  and  deep.  There  was  a  fire  in  the  boat  in  which  she 
stood,  and  around  it  huddled  another  woman,  naked,  but  with 
a  guanaco  robe  over  her  shoulders,  and  several  children,  while 
the  father  sat  in  the  stern  and  paddled  his  own  canoe,  leaving 
the  wife  or  mother,  whichever  she  was,  to  do  all  the  talking. 

In  another  canoe  stood  a  repulsive-looking  man,  who  had 
taken  off  his  guanaco  robe,  and  stood  naked,  flapping  it  at  us, 
and  yelling  like  a  lunatic.  His  companions  were  two  naked 
women  and  several  youngsters,  and  they  all  joined  in  the 
chorus  with  a  vigor  that  we  expected  would  split  their 
throats,  leaving  the  canoe  to  drift  as  it  would,  finally  com¬ 
ing  into  collision  with  another,  at  which  there  was  a  good 
deal  of  scrambling,  and  an  exchange  of  Fuegian  compliments, 
the  nature  of  which  we  could  not  understand.  What  they 
wanted  was  rum  and  tobacco,  having  acquired  a  taste  for  this 
pernicious  weed  from  the  sailors.  For  a  plug  of  “Navy  ”  they 
would  exchange  a  guanaco  blanket  that  could  not  be  bought 
in  New  York  for  seventy-five  dollars,  as  the  guanaco  is  one 
of  the  rarest  and  finest  of  skins.  The  anger  and  disgust  that 
was  pictured  upon  the  faces  of  these  creatures  when  they 
found  that  the  vessel  was  not  slackening  her  speed  would 
have  furnished  a  model  for  the  expressions  on  the  souls  that 
are  lost.  The  passengers  were  about  as  much  disappointed 
as  the  Fuegians,  for  having  all  read  and  heard  of  them,  we 
anticipated  much  gusto,  as  the  Spaniards  say,  in  making  their 
acquaintance. 

Scientists  have  long  differed  as  to  whether  the  Firelanders 
were  cannibals,  but  this  point  has  been  recently  settled  by  a 
practical  demonstration,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  actu¬ 
ally  eat  human  flesh  when  they  can  get  it,  and  pick  the  bones 
very  clean.  In  October,  1SS4,  during  a  snow-storm,  the  steam¬ 
er  Corel  ill  era,  of  the  Pacific  Steam  Navigation  Company’s  line, 
struck  a  rock  in  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  about  forty  miles 
west  of  Punta  Arenas,  and  to  save  as  much  as  possible  of  the 
ship  and  cargo  the  captain  drove  her  upon  the  beach,  where 
she  now  lies,  almost  within  a  stone’s-throw  of  passing  vessels. 


PATAGONIA. 


525 


The  wreck  was  soon  after  abandoned  by  all  but  two  men, 
who  were  left  in  charge  until  wrecking  machinery  could  be 
brought  from  Valparaiso.  One  of  these  men  was  William 
Taylor,  a  quartermaster  or  petty  officer  of  the  ship,  and  his 
companion,  an  ordinary  seaman.  They  were  well  armed,  and 
it  was  supposed  were  capable  of  protecting  themselves,  but  it 
turned  out  that  they  were  not.  One  night  I  was  sitting  upon 
the  rickety  old  dock  at  Punta  Arenas,  waiting  for  the  purser 
of  our  ship  to  take  me  on  board,  when  Taylor  was  introduced 
to  me,  and  told  his  story  in  a  most  graphic  way. 

He  said  that  when  he  and  his  partner  were  left  in  charge 
of  the  vessel,  it  was  with  the  understanding  that  they  were  to 
be  relieved  on  the  21st  of  December,  and  they  were  given  food 
enough  to  last  until  that  time.  After  the  captain  and  crew 
had  gone,  and  the  two  men  were  alone  on  the  ship,  the  Ind¬ 
ians  made  their  appearance  nearly  every  day,  and  bits  of  food 
were  thrown  over  the  side  of  the  vessel  into  their  canoes. 
Taylor  and  his  companion  each  carried  two  revolvers,  and 
were  not  at  all  alarmed,  as  the  vessel  lay  very  high  on  the 
sand,  and  it  did  not  seem  possible  that  the  Indians  could  climb 
up  its  iron  sides.  Although  several  canoes  hovered  around 
the  place  daily,  the  savages  made  no  unfriendly  demonstra¬ 
tions,  and  no  notice  was  taken  of  them  further  than  to  ex¬ 
change  salutations,  and  give  them  meat  and  bread  now  and 
then.  One  day  the  Indians  traded  them  a  string  of  fresh  fish 
for  a  plug  of  tobacco,  and  at  other  times  gave  them  furs  for 
the  same  consideration.  About  noon  on  the  15th  of  Decem¬ 
ber,  while  the  sailor  was  cooking  dinner  ki  the  galley,  Taylor, 
who  was  at  work  below,  heard  several  shots  fired  from  a  re¬ 
volver  on  deck,  with  shrieks  and  other  sounds,  which  proved 
that  a  fight  was  going  on  there.  He  drew  both  of  his  pis¬ 
tols,  and  rushing  up-stairs,  saw  the  bleeding  body  of  his  com¬ 
panion  lying  upon  the  deck,  and  one  of  the  savages  hacking 
at  it  with  the  cook’s  knife.  About  twenty  or  twenty -five 
others  were  performing  a  war-dance  around  one  of  their  num¬ 
ber  who  lay  dead,  and  a  single  glance  at  the  scene  convinced 
Mr.  Taylor  that  he  could  find  no  pleasure  in  attending  the 


526. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


circus.  The  Indians  did  not  see  him,  and  he  crept  quickly 
below  and  stowed  himself  in  a  large  coil  of  rope  in  the  for¬ 
ward  part  of  the  hold.  The  space  in  the  centre  of  the  coil 
was  large  enough  to  contain  his  body  in  a  stooping  position, 
and  making  the  hatchway  as  fast  as  he  could,  he  piled  bags 
of  beans  around  the  sides  anti  on  the  top  of  the  rope,  so  as  to 
entirely  conceal  it.  For  two  days  he  hid  himself  here,  feed¬ 
ing  upon  dry  uncooked  beans  and  a  box  of  sea-biscuits,  which 
he  fortunately  found  in  the  hold ;  but  he  was  entirely  with¬ 
out  water.  The  third  day,  fearing  that  he  would  die  of  thirst. 


PORT  FAMINE. 


he  crept  out  and  drew  a  bucket  of  water  from  a  cask  on  the 
second  deck,  which  tie  carried  back  to  his  place  of  conceal¬ 
ment.  On  this  excursion  he  neither  heard  nor  saw  signs  of 
the  Indians,  and  after  two  days  more  had  passed,  screwed  his 
courage  up  to  the  point  of  making  an  exploration.  Arrang¬ 
ing  everything  so  that  he  could  make  a  hasty  retreat  if  nec¬ 
essary.  and  using  bean-bags  to  make  a  rifle-pit  from  which 
he  could  defend  himself  if  pursued,  he  crept  quietly  into  the 
saloon  of  the  vessel,  where  he  found  that  the  Indians  had  been 
indulging  in  “a  high  old  time.”  Glasses  and  crockery  were 
smashed,  mattresses  were  dragged  from  the  cabin,  and  every- 


PATAGONIA. 


527 


thing  that  was  movable  lay  scattered  helter-skelter  over  the 
dining  -  tables  and  floor.  It  was  evident  that  a  search  had 
been  made  for  him,  as  doors  which  were  locked  had  been 
broken  open,  although  no  attempt  had  been  made  to  remove 
the  coverings  from  the  hatchways  which  led  into  the  hold. 
Only  one  deck  presented  signs  of  a  search,  and  above  all  was 
perfectly  quiet.  Going  up-stairs,  Taylor  found  human  bones, 
picked  clean,  scattered  around  the  galley.  Tie  did  not  touch 
them,  because  to  look  at  them  gave  him  the  “  shivers,”  he  said, 
but  he  saw  enough  to  convince  him  that  not  only  had  the  body 
of  his  companion  been  eaten,  but  also  that  of  the  savage  who 
had  been  killed  in  the  fray.  It  was  evident  that  the  savages 
had  enjoyed  a  long  and  lively  picnic,  for  there  Avere  se\reral 
places  on  the  deck  \vhere  fires  had  been  built.  It  Avas  a  Avon- 
der  to  him  that  the  vessel  had  not  been  burned  to  the  Avater’s 
edge.  While  hunting  around  for  food,  he  found  the  head  of 
his  companion  with  the  neck  chopped  off  close  to  the  jaAvs, 
the  eyes  punched  out,  and  the  fleshy  part  of  the  cheeks  cut 
off.  The  sight  of  this  Avas  so  horrible  that  he  abandoned 
further  exploration,  and  returned  to  his  place  of  confinement 
so  faint  and  bewildered  that  he  could  scarcely  find  his  way. 
That  night  he  crept  out  again,  and  finding  some  canned  meat 
and  fruit,  lowered  himself  overboard  and  SAvam  ashore,  con¬ 
cluding  that  the  Indians  would  return  to  the  vessel,  and  that 
he  Avould  be  safer  in  the  rocks  and  bushes.  Here  he  conceal¬ 
ed  himself  for  several  days,  aAvaiting  the  vessel  that  was  to 
arrive  from  Valparaiso  on  the  21st  of  the  month.  The  25tli 
passed  without  any  sign  of  relief,  and  on  the  morning  of  the 
26th  he  started  on  foot  for  Punta  Arenas,  where  he  arrived 
tAvo  days  after.  Here  he  told  his  story,  and  instead  of  being 
Avelcomed  Avith  hospitality,  Avas  arrested  and  thrown  into  jail, 
charged  with  the  murder  of  his  companion.  A  boat  was  sent 
doAvn  to  the  wreck,  and  such  evidence  Avas  found  there  as  to 
convince  every  one  of  the  truth  of  his  statement ;  AArhereupon 
he  was  released,  and  is  noAV  at  Punta  Arenas,  in  the  employ¬ 
ment  of  the  Steamship  Company,  on  an  old  hulk  which  lies 
in  the  harbor  and  is  used  for  the  storage  of  coal. 


528 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


I  have  not  told  the  story  in  as  graphic  a  manner  as  it  was 
related  to  me  by  William  Taylor  that  night  under  the  antarc¬ 
tic  stars,  but  have  given  only  the  facts  of  his  narrative,  with¬ 
out  embellishment  of  sailors’  slang  and  oaths.  He  lives  in 
the  hope  of  “steering  within  hailing  distance  of  some  of  the 
savages,  when  he  proposes  to  give  them  something  worse  than 
a  rope’s-end.” 

It  is  believed  there  is  much  gold  in  Terra  del  Fuego,  as 
nuggets  have  been  discovered  by  the  missionaries  in  the 
streams.  The  Argentine  Government  proposes  to  make  an 
exploration  soon,  and  sanguine  people  think  the  time  is  not 
far  distant  when  the  islands  of  the  archipelago  will  be  filled 
with  successful  prospectors.  Seals  and  other  fur-bearing  ani¬ 
mals  are  plenty,  but  many  skins  are  not  sent  to  market  for 
the  reason  that  supplies  can  be  obtained  cheaper  elsewhere. 

There  used  to  be  a  State  called  Patagonia,  and  one  can 
still  find  it  referred  to  in  old  geographies,  but  by  the  com¬ 
bined  efforts  of  Chili  and  the  Argentine  Kepublic  it  has  been 
wiped  off  the  modern  maps  of  the  world.  The  United  States 
ministers  at  the  capitals  of  the  two  republics  named  assisted 
in  dissecting  the  territory,  and  were  presented  with  beautiful 
and  costly  testimonials  as  tokens  of  the  artistic  manner  in 
which  it  was  done.  It  was  agreed  that  the  boundary-line  of 
Chili  should  be  extended  down  the  coast  and  then  run  east- 
ward,  just  north  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  so  that  the  Ar¬ 
gentines  should  have  the  pampas,  or  prairies,  and  Chili  the 
strait  and  the  islands.  The  map  of  Chili  now  looks  like  the 
leg  of  a  tall  man,  long  and  lean,  with  a  very  high  instep  and 
several  conspicuous  bunions. 

It  was  a  diplomatic  stroke  on  the  part  of  Chili  to  get  con¬ 
trol  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  that  great  international  high¬ 
way  through  which  all  steamers  must  go ;  and  the  archipelago 
along  the  western  coast,  comprising  thousands  of  islands  which 
have  never  been  explored,  and  which  are  believed  to  be  rich 
in  what  the  world  holds  valuable,  also  fell  to  her  share  ;  but 
the  Argentines  got  the  best  of  the  bargain  in  broad  plains, 
rich  in  agricultural  resources,  rising  in  regular  terraces  from 


PATAGONIA. 


529 


the  Atlantic  seaboard  to  the  summits  of  the  Cordilleras,  whose 
snowy  crests  stand  like  an  army  of  silent  sentinels,  marking 
the  line  upon  which  the  two  republics  divide — plains  as  broad 
and  useful  as  those  which  stretch  between  the  Mississippi 
Kiver  and  the  ranges  of  Colorado,  and  as  good  for  cattle  as 
they  are  for  corn. 


STARVATION  BEACH. 

It  was  a  rather  unusual  proceeding,  this  partition  of  the  Pat¬ 
agonian  estates.  It  is  commonly  the  custom  to  divide  prop¬ 
erty  after  the  owner’s  death ;  but  in  this  instance  the  inherit¬ 
ance  was  first  shared  by  the  heirs,  and  then  the  owner  was 
mercilessly  slaughtered.  They  called  it  a  grand  triumph  of 
the  genius  of  civilization  over  the  barbarians,  and  the  success 
of  the  scheme  certainly  deserved  such  a  designation ;  but  in 
this  case  as  in  many  others  the  impediment  to  civilization 
34 


530 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


was  swept  away  in  a  cataract  of  blood.  General  Roca,  the 
recent  President  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  was  the  author 
and  executor  of  the  plan  of  civilizing  Patagonia,  and  he  did  it 
as  the  early  Spanish  Conquistadors  introduced  Christianity 
into  America,  with  the  keen  edge  of  a  sword.  Ilis  success 
won  him  military  glory  and  political  honors,  and  made  him 
what  he  is  to-day,  the  greatest  of  the  Argentinians. 

There  were  originally  two  great  nations  of  Indians  in  what 
was  known  as  Patagonia,  but  the  Spaniards  called  them  all 
Patagonians,  because  of  the  enormous  footprints  they  found 
upon  the  sand.  The  early  explorers  reported  them  to  be  a 
race  of  giants.  The  first  white  man  that  interviewed  these 
people  was  Magellan,  the  great  navigator  who  disco\  ered  the 
strait  which  bears  his  name,  and  who  was  the  first  to  entei  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  lie  had  with  him  a  romancer  by  the  name  of 
Pigafetta,  who  gave  the  world  a  great  amount  of  interesting 
information  without  regard  to  accuracy.  All  the  navigators 
who  followed  Magellan  felt  in  duty  bound  to  see  and  describe 
as  amazing  things  as  their  predecessor  had  witnessed,  and 
even  went  much  further  in  their  endeavors  to  keep  up  the  Eu¬ 
ropean  interest  in  the  Xew  World.  Hence,  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  fables  which  are  still  repeated,  but  have  no  more 
foundation  than  the  tales  of  the  warrior  woman  who  gave 
a  name  to  the  greatest  stream  on  earth,  found  their  way  into 
history. 

This  man  Pigafetta,  for  example,  says  that  the  Patagonia 
Indians  “were  of  that  biggeness^that  our  menne  of  meane 
stature  could  reach  up  to  their  waysts,  and  they  had  bigg 
voyces,  so  that  their  talk  seemed  lyke  unto  the  roar  of  a 
beaste.”  In  order  to  secure  credit  for  courage,  the  early  navi¬ 
gators  told  astonishing  yarns  about  the  fierceness  of  these 
Indians,  who  still  have  a  reputation  for  fighting  which,  no 
doubt,  is  well  founded.  Rum  and  disease  have,  however, 
made  sad  work  among  the  race,  which  is  in  its  decadence; 
and  the  ambition  of  the  Patagonian  now  is  onl\  equal  to 
that  of  the  Xorth  American  Indian — that  is,  to  get  enough 
to  eat  with  the  least  possible  labor.  They  hang  around  the 


PATAGONIA. 


531 


ranches  to  pick  up  what  is  thrown  to  them  in  the  way  of 
food,  stealing  and  begging,  and  occasionally  they  bring  in 
skins  to  the  settlements  to  exchange  for  fire-water. 

Later  explorers  discovered  that  there  were  two  distinct 
races  among  the  aborigines :  first,  the  canoe  Indians  of  the 
coast;  and,  second,  the  hunters  of  the  interior,  who  are  ex¬ 
pert  horsemen,  raise  cattle,  and  resemble  the  Sioux  of  the 
United  States  or  the  Apaches  of  the  Mexican  border.  The 
two  nations  spoke  languages  entirely  different,  and  had  no 


USE  OF  LASSO  AMD  BOLAS. 


532 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


resemblance  in  their  manner  or  habits  of  life.  Those  of  the 
south,  who  extended  over  into  the  curious  islands  of  Terra 


del  Fuego,  are  uglier  in 
appearance,  fiercer  in  dis¬ 
position,  and  are  believed 
to  be  cannibals.  In  fact, 
there  is  a  recent  instance 
of  man-eating  in  the 
Strait  of  Magellan  which 
appears  to  be  authentic¬ 
ally  reported.  The  canoe 
Indians  are  called  Tehue- 
iche ,  and  the  horsemen 
of  the  north — the  plains 
or  pampa  Indians — are 
called  Chenna.  The  lat¬ 
ter  appear  to  be  closely 
allied  to  the  Araucanians 
of  Chili,  a  race  which 
the  Spaniards  were  nev¬ 
er  able  to  subdue,  but 
with  which  they  have 
intermarried  extensively, 


IN  THEIR  OSTRICH  ROBES. 


and  produced  the  present  peon  of  Chili,  who  has  all  the 
vivacity  and  impulsiveness  of  the  Spaniard  united  w  ith  the 
muscular  development,  the  courage,  and  the  endurance  of  the 
Indian.  The  frontier  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  until  a  few 
years  since,  was  constantly  harassed  by  the  Chennas — mur¬ 
der.  arson,  and  pillage  were  the  rule — and  the  development 
of  the  nation  was  seriously  checked,  until  General  I ioca  was 
sent  out  with  an  army  to  exterminate  them. 

The  dividing  line  between  the  Argentine  Republic  and 
what  was  known  as  Patagonia  was  the  river  Negro,  which 
Hows  along  the  forty-first  parallel,  about  nine  hundred  miles 
north  of  the  Strait  of  Magellan.  The  greater  portion  of  this 
country  is  well -watered  pampas,  or  prairies,  that  extend  in 
plainly  marked  terraces,  rising  one  after  the  other  from  the 


PATAGONIA. 


533 


Atlantic  to  the  Andes ;  but  towards  the  south  the  land  be¬ 
comes  more  bleak  and  barren,  the  soil  being  a  bed  of  shale, 
with  thorny  shrubs  and  tufts  of  coarse  grass,  upon  which 
nothing  but  the  ostrich  can  exist.  The  winters  are  very  se¬ 
vere,  fierce  winds  sweeping  from  the  mountains  to  the  sea, 
with,  nothing  to  obstruct  their  course.  These  winds  are  called 
'pamperos,  and  are  the  dread  of  those  who  navigate  the  South 
Atlantic.  During  the  winter  months  the  Indians  were  in  the 
habit  of  driving  their  cattle  northward  into  the  foot-hills  of 
the  Andes  for  protection ;  and,  leaving  them  there,  they  made 
raids  upon  the  settle¬ 
ments  on  the  Argentine 
frontier,  killing,  burning, 
and  stealing  cattle  and 
horses.  Terror-stricken, 
the  ranchmen  fled  to  the 
cities  for  protection  ;  so 
that  year  by  year  the 
frontier  line  receded  tow¬ 
ards  Buenos  Ayres,  in¬ 
stead  of  extending  far¬ 
ther  upon  the  plains. 

President  Roca  was 
then  a  general  of  cav¬ 
alry,  and  had  won  re¬ 
nown  in  the  war  against 
Lopez,  the  tyrant  of  Par¬ 
aguay.  He  was  sent 
with  two  or  three  reg¬ 
iments  to  discipline  the 
Indians,  and  he  did  it  in  a  way  that  was  as  effective  as  it  was 
novel.  While  the  Indians  were  in  the  mountains  with  their 
cattle  he  set  his  soldiers  at  work,  several  thousands  of  them, 
and  dug  a  great  ditch,  twelve  feet  wide  and  fifteen  feet  deep, 
from  the  mountains  to  the  Rio  Negro,  scattering  the  earth 
from  the  excavation  over  the  ground  with  such  care  as  to 
leave  nothing  to  excite  the  savages’  suspicions.  Then,  when 


A  PATAGONIAN  BELLE. 


534 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  ditch  was  completed,  he  flanked  the  Indians  with  his  cav¬ 
alry  and  drove  them  southward  on  the  run.  Being  ignorant 
of  the  trap  set  for  them,  the  savages  galloped  carelessly  along 
until  thousands  of  them  were  piled  into  the  ditch,  one  on  top 
of  the  other-a  maimed,  struggling,  screaming  mass  of  men, 
women,  children,  and  horses.  Many  were  killed  by  the  fall, 
others  were  crushed  by  those  who  fell  upon  them,  while  those 
who  crawled  out  were  despatched  by  the  sabres  of  the  caval- 

‘  Those  who  were  not  driven  into  the  ditch  fled  to  the  east¬ 
ward  hunting  for  a  crossing,  which  the  soldiers  allowed  them 
no  time  to  make,  even  if  they  had  had  the  tools.  Shovels 
and  picks  and  spades  were  unknown  among  the  1  atagomans, 
and  as  they  are  the  wards  of  no  nation,  muskets  and  ammu¬ 
nition  had  never  been  furnished  them  to  do  their  fagging 
with  It  was  very  much  such  a  chase  as  Chief  Joseph  of  1 
\ez  Perces  gave  General  Howard  in  the  North-west  a  few 
years  ago,  and  finally  ended  in  General  Boca’s  driving  the 
Indians  into  a  corner,  with  the  impassable  Kio -Negro  behind 
them,  where  the  slaughter  was  continued  until  most  of  the 
warriors  fell.  The  remainder  were  made  prisoners  and  dis- 
tributed  around  among  the  several  regiments  of  the  Argen¬ 
tine  army,  in  which  they  have  proven  excellent  soldiers.  The 
women  and  children  were  sent  to  the  Argentine  cities,  where 
they  have  since  been  held  in  a  state  of  semi-slavery  by  fami¬ 
lies  of  officials  and  men  of  influence.  The  dead  were  ncier 
counted,  but  were  buried  in  the  ditch  which  encompassed 

their  destruction.  .... 

Northern  Patagonia  was  thus  cleared  of  savages,  and  civili¬ 
zation  stretched  out  its  arms  to  embrace  the  pampas,  which 
ivc  now  being  rapidly  populated  with  ranchmen.  The  glass 
is  verv  similar  to  that  of  our  own  great  plains,  but  water  is 
more  plentiful  and  regular  than  in  the  South-west  Temtorres 
of  the  United  States.  Towards  the  Andes  there  is  some  tim¬ 
ber  and  the  foot-hills  are  well  wooded.  Grazing  land  m  this 
country  is  sold  at  a  nominal  price  by  the  Argentine  Govern 
ment,  or  is  leased  to  tenants  for  a  term  of  eight  t  ears,  in 


PATAGONIA. 


535 


of  six  thousand  acres,  at  a  rental  of  one  hundred  dollars  per 
year.  Locations  nearer  the  cities,  of  course,  cost  more  money, 
and  are  hard  to  get,  as  they  are  already  occupied  by  people 
who  secured  titles  to  the  land  years  ago  by  “concessions” 
from  Congress  or  other  means, 

Not  long  ago  the  United  States  Consul  at  Buenos  Ayres 
received  a  letter  from  a  New  York  capitalist,  in  which  the 
latter  proposed  that  they  should  pool  their  issues  and  secure 
a  “  concession  ”  from  the  Argentine  Government  to  gather 
up  the  wild  cattle  on  the  pampas.  The  capitalist,  who  had 
been  overhauling  his  geography,  discovered  that  “  immense 
herds  of  wild  horses  and  cattle  are  roaming  ownerless  upon 
the  pampas  of  the  Argentine  Republic  and  Patagonia,”  and 
thought  it  would  be  a  good  scheme  to  take  a  lot  of  Texas 
cow-boys  down  and  corral  them,  if  the  permission  of  the 
Government  could  be  obtained.  He  proposed  that  the  con¬ 
sul  should  obtain  such  permission,  while  he  would  furnish  the 
cow-boys  and  the  necessary  capital,  and  the  two  would  become 
partners  in  the  Patagonia  cattle  trade  on  an  extensive  scale. 

The  astonished  consul  did  not  answer  the  letter.  It  was  a 
tempting  scheme,  but  there  were  several  obstacles  in  the  way 
of  its  success,  the  first  being  that  there  were  no  wild  cattle 
on  the  pampas,  and  never  had  been.  The  Indians  had  large 
herds,  which  were  “  absorbed  ”  by  prominent  officials  when 
General  Roca  concluded  his  scheme  of  extermination ;  but  it 
would  be  quite  as  reasonable  to  make  such  a  proposition  to 
the  Governor  of  Colorado.  There  are  about  thirty  million 
cows,  five  million  horses,  and  one  hundred  million  sheep  graz¬ 
ing  on  the  pampas  of  the  Argentine  Republic  and  Patagonia, 
but  they  are  all  properly  branded,  and  valued  at  something 
like  four  hundred  millions  of  dollars.  The  annual  number  of 
beeves  slaughtered  reaches  nearly  four  millions,  and  about 
fen  million  sheep  are  turned  into  mutton  each  year. 

The  Argentinians  think  that  their  country  is  to  be  the  great¬ 
est  of  all  the  world  in  cattle  and  wool  production,  and  the 
figures  loom  up  very  much  like  it,  as  the  increase  within  the 
last  twenty  years  has  been  about  four  hundred  per  cent.  At 


536 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


present  the  Argentine  Republic  has  more  sheep  than  any  other 
nation,  but  the  value  of  the  wool  product  is  less  by  one-third 
than  that  of  Australia,  because  the  fleece  is  so  much  lighter. 
The  clip  per  animal  in  Australia  is  worth  about  one  dollar, 
while  in  the  Argentine  Republic  it  sells  for  about  fifty  cents. 

The  capital  of  Patagonia,  if  the  territory  of  that  name  may 
be  said  to  have  a  capital,  as  there  is  only  one  town  within  its 
limits,  is  Punta  Arenas,  or  Sandy  Point,  located  about  one- 
third  of  the  distance  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  in  the 
Strait  of  Magellan.  It  belongs  to  Chili,  and  was  formerly 
a  penal  colony ;  but  one  look  at  it  is  enough  to  convince 
the  most  incredulous  that  whoever  located  it  did  not  intend 
the  convict’s  life  to  be  a  happy  one.  It  lies  on  a  long  spit 
which  stretches  out  into  the  strait,  and  the  English  call  it 
Sandy  Point,  but  a  better  name  would  be  Cape  Desolation. 
Conficts  are  sent  there  no  longer,  but  some  of  those  who  were 
sent  thither  when  Chili  kept  the  seeds  and  harvests  of  her  rev¬ 
olutions  still  remain  there.  There  used  to  be  a  military  guard, 
but  that  was  withdrawn  during  the  war  with  Peru,  and  all  the 
prisoners  who  would  consent  to  enter  the  army  got  a  ticket  of 
leave.  The  Governor  resides  in  what  was  once  the  barracks, 
and  horses  are  kept  in  what  was  used  as  a  stockade.  Hunger, 
decay,  ami  dreariness  are  inscribed  upon  everything — on  the 
faces  of  the  men  as  well  as  on  the  houses  they  live  in — and 
the  people  look  as  discouraging  as  the  mud. 

They  say  it  rains  in  Punta  Arenas  every  day.  That  is  a 
mistake — sometimes  it  snows.  Another  misrepresentation  is 
the  published  announcement  that  ships  passing  the  strait  al¬ 
ways  touch  there.  Doubtless  they  desire  to,  and  it  is  one  of 
the  delusions  of  the  owners  that  they  do ;  but  as  the  wind 
never  ceases  except  for  a  few  hours  at  a  time,  and  the  bay  on 
which  the  place  is  located  is  shallow,  it  is  only  about  once  a 
week  or  so  that  a  boat  can  land,  because  of  the  violent  surf. 
Our  arrival  happened  to  be  opportune,  for  the  water  was 
smooth,  and  we  landed  without  great  difficulty,  the  only 
drawbacks  being  a  pouring  rain  and  mud  that  seemed  bot¬ 
tomless. 


PATAGONIA. 


537 


The  town  is  interesting,  because  it  is  the  only  settlement 
in  Patagonia,  and  of  course  the  only  one  in  the  strait.  It  is 
about  four  thousand  miles  from  the  southernmost  town  on 
the  west  coast  of  South  America  to  the  first  port  on  the  east¬ 
ern  coast — a  voyage  which  ordinarily  requires  fifteen  days ; 
and  as  Punta  Arenas  is  in  about  the  middle  of  the  way,  it 
possesses  some  attractions.  Spread  out  in  the  mud  are  two 
hundred  and  fifty  houses,  more  or  less,  which  shelter  from 
the  ceaseless  storms  a  community  of  eight  hundred  or  one 
thousand  people,  representing  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men, 
from  the  primeval  Indian  type  to  the  pure  Caucasian — con¬ 
victs,  traders,  fugitives,  wrecked  seamen,  deserters  from  all 
the  navies  in  the  world,  Chinamen,  negroes,  Poles,  Italians, 
Sandwich  Islanders,  wandering  Jews,  and  human  drift-wood 
of  every  tongue  and  clime  cast  up  by  the  sea  and  absorbed  in 
a  community  scarcely  one  of  which  would  be  willing  to  tell 
why  he  came  there,  or  would  stay  if  he  could  get  away.  It 
is  said  that  in  Punta  Arenas  an  interpreter  for  every  lan¬ 
guage  known  to  the  modern  wTorld  can  be  found,  but  although 
the  place  belongs  to  Chili,  English  is  most  generally  spoken. 
There  are  a  few  women  in  the  settlement,  some  of  them  faith¬ 
ful  mothers  and  wives,  no  doubt,  but  the  most  of  them  have 
defective  antecedents,  and  are  noted  for  a  disregard  of  matri¬ 
monial  obligations. 

There  are  some  decent  people  here — ship  agents  and  traders 
who  came  for  business  reasons,  a  consul  or  two,  and  among 
others  an  Irish  physician,  Dr.  Fenton,  who  is  the  host  and  ora¬ 
cle  sought  for  by  every  stranger  who  arrives.  Occasionally 
some  yachting  party  stops  here  on  a  voyage  around  the 
world,  or  a  man-of-war  cruising  from  one  ocean  to  the  other, 
and  steamers  bound  from  Europe  to  the  South  Pacific  ports, 
or  returning  thence,  pass  every  day  or  two  ;  so  that  communi¬ 
cation  is  kept  up  with  the  rest  of  the  universe,  and  the  peo¬ 
ple  who  live  at  this  antipodes,  where  the  sun  is  seen  in  the 
north,  and  the  Fourth  of  July  comes  in  the  depth  of  winter, 
are  pretty  Avell  informed  as  to  affairs  at  the  other  end  of  the 
globe.  The  latitude  corresponds  to  about  that  of  Greenland, 


538 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


and  if  you  tip  the  globe  over  you  will  see  that  it  is  the  south¬ 
ernmost  town  in  the  world,  farther  south  than  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope  or  any  of  the  inhabited  islands.  The  emotions 
that  come  with  the  contemplation  of  the  fact  that  you  are 
about  as  far  away  from  anywhere  as  one  can  go  are  quite 
novel ;  but  in  the  midst  of  them  you  are  summoned  to  con¬ 
front  the  fact  that  the  world  is  not  as  large  as  it  looks  to  be, 
for  here  is  a  man  who  used  to  live  where  you  came  from,  and 
another  who  once  worked  in  an  office  where  you  are  em¬ 
ployed.  There  is  a  news-stand  where  you  can  purchase  Lon¬ 
don  and  Hew  York  papers,  often  three  or  four  months  old, 
but  still  fresh  to  the  long  voyager,  and  shops  at  which  Paris 
confectionery  and  the  luxuries  of  life  can  be  had  at  Patago¬ 
nia  prices. 

There  is  a  curiosity-shop  near  the  landing,  which  is  kept  by 
an  old  fellow  who  was  once  a  sailor  in  the  United  States  navy, 
and  fought  under  Admiral  Farragut  at  Mobile — at  least  he 
says  he  did,  and  he  speaks  like  a  truthful  man.  Here  are  to 
be  purchased  many  interesting  relics ;  and  passengers  who  are 
fortunate  enough  to  get  ashore,  go  back  to  their  ship  loaded 
down  with  Indian  trifles,  shells  and  flying  fish,  tusks  of  sea- 
lions,  serpent-skins,  agates  from  Cape  Horn,  turtle-shells,  and 
the  curious  tails  of  the  armadillo,  in  which  the  Indians  carry 
their  war-paint.  But  the  prettiest  things  to  be  bought  at 
Punta  Arenas  are  the  ostrich  rugs,  which  are  made  of  the 
breasts  of  the  young  birds,  and  are  as  soft  as  down  and  as 
beautiful  as  plumage  can  be. 

The  plumes  of  the  ostrich  are  plucked  Bom  the  wings  and 
tail  while  the  bird  is  alive,  but  to  make  a  rug  the  little  ones 
are  killed  and  skinned,  and  the  soft  fluffy  breasts  are  sewed 
together  until  thev  reach  the  size  of  a  blanket.  Those  of  a 
brown  color  and  those  of  the  purest  white  are  alternated,  and 
the  combination  produces  a  very  fine  artistic  effect.  They  are 
too  dainty  and  beautiful  to  be  spread  upon  the  floor,  but  can 
be  used  as  carriage  robes,  or  to  throw  over  the  back  of  a  couch 
or  chair.  Sometimes  ladies  use  them  as  panels  for  the  front 
of  dress  skirts,  and  thus  they  are  more  striking  than  any  fab- 


PATAGONIA. 


539 


ric  a  loom  can  produce.  Opera  cloaks  have  been  made  of 
them  also,  to  the  gratification  of  the  assthetic.  They  are  too 
rare  to  be  common,  and  too  beautiful  to  ever  tire  the  eye. 

This  town  of  Sandy  Point  is  quite  a  market  for  other  sorts 
of  furs,  which  are  brought  in  by  the  Indians  of  Patagonia  from 
the  mountains.  Several  large  houses  in  Y alparaiso  and  Bue¬ 
nos  Ayres  have  agents  there,  and  the  shipments  to  Europe 
are  quite  large.  The  chief  articles  of  export  in  this  line  are 
ostrich  feathers  and  guanaco  (pronounced  wanacko )  skins. 


THE  GUANACO. 


The  fur-bearing  animals  of  South  America  are  numerous, 
and  some  of  them  are  very  fine.  The  mountains  of  the  lower 
half  of  the  continent  abound  with  vicunas,  guanacos,  alpacas, 
and  chinchillas,  while  the  archipelago  of  Chili  and  Terra  del 
Fuego,  with  its  thousands  of  islands,  fairly  swarm  with  seals. 
Y ery  many  furs  are  shipped  to  Europe,  but  the  seals  are  sel¬ 
dom  touched  except  by  the  native  Indians,  who  use  their 
flesh  for  food  and  their  skins  for  garments.  The  supply  of 
seals  is  practically  inexhaustible.  They  are  found  in  large 
numbers  as  far  north  as  Guayaquil,  on  the  west  coast,  and  the 
passengers  on  the  steamships  passing  up  and  down  are  enter- 


540 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tained  by  their  antics.  The  seals  have  helped  the  sea-birds 
to  create  the  supply  of  guano  upon  the  Peruvian  coast,  and 
this  valuable  fertilizing  material  is  largely  composed  of  de¬ 
cayed  seal  flesh  and  bones,  as  Avell  as  the  remnants  of  the 
Ashes  they  have  dined  upon  for  thousands  of  years. 

The  skins  of  the  northern  seals  are  worthless,  but  farther 
south,  as  the  archipelago  is  reached,  a  colder  climate  exists, 
the  fur  is  thicker,  and  the  skins  have  value.  If  the  reader 
will  take  the  map  of  South  America,  and  examine  the  con¬ 
figuration  of  the  continent  south  of  the  fortieth  parallel,  he 
will  see  how  numerous  these  islands  are,  and  every  one  of 
them  is  swarming  with  seals.  There  have  been  some  attempts 
at  seal-fishing  in  Terra  del  Fuego,  but  the  Indians  are  so 
fierce  as  to  make  it  dangerous  for  small  parties  to  visit  the 
islands,  and  only  a  few  skins  are  shipped  from  Punta  Arenas. 

The  ffuanaco  skins  are  considered  very  fine.  These  are  the 
wearing  apparel  of  the  Indians,  and  with  the  ostrich  rugs  con¬ 
stitute  the  chief  results  of  their  chase.  In  Patagonia  ostriches 
are  not  bred,  as  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  but  run  wild,  and 
are  getting  exterminated  rapidly.  The  Indians  chase  them 
on  horseback,  and  catch  them  with  Lolas — two  heavy  balls  at¬ 
tached  to  the  ends  of  a  rope.  Galloping  after  the  ostrich, 
they  grasp  one  ball  in  the  hand,  and  whirl  the  other  around 
their  heads  like  a  lasso  coil.  When  near  enough  to  the  bird, 
they  let  go,  and  the  two  balls,  still  revolving  in  the  air  if  skil¬ 
fully  directed,  will  wind  around  the  long  legs  of  the  ostrich, 
and  send  him  turning  somersaults  upon  the  sand.  The  Ind¬ 
ians  then  leap  from  the  saddle,  and  if  scarce  of  meat  they  will 
cut  the  throat  of  the  bird  and  carry  the  carcass  to  camp. 
If  they  have  no  need  of  food,  they  will  pull  the  long  plumes 
from  the  tail  and  wings,  and  let  him  go  again  to  gather  fresh 
plumage  for  the  coming  season. 

The  bolas  are  handled  very  dexterously,  and  well  trained 
Indians  are  said  to  be  able  to  bring  down  an  ostrich  at  a 
range  of  two  or  three  hundred  yards.  But  it  is  not  often 
necessayy  to  draw  at  that  distance.  Horses  accustomed  to  the 
chase  can  overtake  a  bird  on  an  unobstructed  plain ;  but  tire 


PATAGONIA. 


541 


PATAGONIAN  INDIANS. 


birds  have  the  advantage  of  being  “  artful  dodgers,”  and  as 
they  carry  so  much  less  weight,  can  turn  and  reverse  quite 
suddenly.  The  usual  mode  of  hunting  them  is  for  a  dozen  or 
so  Indians  to  surround  a  herd  and  charge  upon  it  suddenly. 
In  this  way  several  are  usually  brought  down  before  they  can 
scatter,  and  those  that  get  away  are  pursued.  As  they  dodge 
from  one  hunter  they  usually  run  afoul  of  another,  and  be¬ 
fore  they  are  aware  they  are  tripped  by  the  entangling  bolas. 
People  who  are  passing  through  the  strait  often  stop  over 
and  await  another  steamer  at  Punta  Arenas  to  enjoy  an  os¬ 
trich  chase.  They  can  secure  trained  horses  and  guides  at 
moderate  rates.  One  who  has  never  thrown  the  bolas  will 
be  amazed,  the  first  time  he  tries  it,  to  find  how  difficult  it 
is  to  do  a  trick  that  looks  so  easy. 


BUENOS  AYRES. 

CAPITAL  OF  THE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC. 


The  C’hillanos  claim  to  be  the  ^  ankees  of  South  America, 
and  it  is  tlieir  proudest  boast,  but  the  Argentinians  are  more 
entitled  to  that  distinction.  Chili,  commercially  and  in  her 
political  affinities,  is  to  all  intents  and  purposes  an  English 
colony.  She  reckons  her  transactions  in  pounds,  shillings, 
ant,l  pence,  and  her  statute-books  bear  the  law  of  entail. 
There  is  no  democracy  outside  her  constitution,  and  a  peon 
can  never  be  anything  else.  The  poor  may  not  acquire  land, 
but  must  be  the  retainers  of  the  rich  and  the  tenants  of  the 


TIIE  HARBOR.  BUENOS  ATRES. 


<rreat  estates  which  are  tied  up. forever  from  them.  Tn  the 
Argentine  Republic,  on  the  contrary,  the  pampas  are  divided 
like  the  prairies  of  our  own  great  West.  Any  man  may 
acquire  an  estancia  by  location  upon  the  public  lands  and 
the  payment  of  a  nominal  price  per  acre ;  so  the  country  is 
settling  up  with  those  who  have  fled  from  the  conditions 
that  exist  in  Chili,  free  thought,  free  speech,  free  air,  and 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


543 


free  land  being  their  inducement.  The  city  of  Buenos  Ayres  is 
the  only  one  of  the  South  American  capitals  in  which  modern 
ideas  and  manners  of  life  prevail.  The  town  is  of  mushroom 
growth,  like  Chicago.  There  were  no  old  prejudices  to  up¬ 
root,  no  antiquated  bigotry  to  tear  down.  It  looks  less  like 
Spain  than  any  of  the  other  capitals,  and  more  like  a  modern 
American  community. 

The  first  impressions  of  the  traveller  are  unfavorable,  and 
you  wonder  what  possessed  the  Spaniards  to  locate  this  cap¬ 
ital  where  it  stands.  But  Buenos  Ayres  is  like  Topsy — it 
simply  “  growed.”  The  first  man  who  came  was  Juan  Diaz 
de  Solis,  in  1515.  He  discovered  the  Bio  de  la  Plata,  and  was 
murdered  by  the  Indians.  Then  came  the  famous  Sebastian 
Cabot,  who  explored  the  country  as  far  up  the  river  as  Para¬ 
guay  ten  years  later,  and  was  followed  by  Pedro  de  Mendoza 
in  1535,  who  obtained  permission  from  the  Spanish  Govern¬ 
ment  to  equip  an  expedition  to  subdue  the  country,  provided 
— as  was  always  the  rule  in  the  Pickwick  Club — he  did  the 
same  at  his  own  expense.  Mendoza  came  with  eleven  hun¬ 
dred  men,  went  ashore  where  he  first  saw  land,  established  a 
camp  as  a  basis  of  operations,  and  from  the  purity  of  the 
atmosphere  called  it  Buenos  Ayres,  or  “  good  air.”  He  had 
no  intention  of  founding  a  city  at  this  location;  his  pur¬ 
pose  was  to  rest  there  a  while  and  keep  a  base  of  supplies, 
until  he  had  found  a  path  to  the  mythical  El  Dorado,  which 
was  supposed  to  he  somewhere  in  the  interior  of  South 
America. 

The  approach  to  Buenos  Ayres,  which  stands  about  one 
hundred  miles  above  the  mouth  of  the  Bio  Plata — or  “  the 
river  Plate,”  as  it  is  more  commonly  called  by  English  writ¬ 
ers — is  perplexing  to  navigators,  as  the  mouth  of  the  river  is 
beset  with  mud -banks  and  sand-bars  —  accumulations  that 
come  down  from  the  interior  of  the  continent  upon  the  swift 
waters,  and,  like  the  shoals  in  the  Mississippi,  are  constantly 
shifting.  The  voyage  from  the  Strait  of  Magellan  to  the 
place  is  not  a  comfortable  one,  and  the  captain  is  always  glum 
and  anxious.  "When  it  is  calm  weather  he  is  nervous,  and 


544 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


keeps  his  eye  on  the  barometer  for  fear  of  a  gale ;  and  when 
the  gale  comes,  as  it  does  about  three  or  four  days  in  a  week, 
the  jokes  of  the  passengers  do  not  appear  to  entertain  him. 
These  gales  are  called  pamperos,  and  sweep  across  the  pampas 
of  Patagonia  with  the  violence  of  a  tornado.  Many  a  brave 
ship  has  gone  down  a  victim  of  their  fierceness,  and  the  sail¬ 
ors  are  as  much  afraid  of  them  as  of  the  tempests  which 
haunt  Cape  Horn. 

Our  captain  was  unusually  anxious,  because  we  had  a  priest 
on  board.  Ever  since  the  days  of  Jonah  there  has  been  a 
superstition  among  sailors  that  clergymen  always  bring  bad 
luck,  particularly  a  Catholic  priest.  In  trying  to  discover 
why  the  forebodings  over  a  priest  should  be  greater  than 
those  over  a  Protestant  parson,  the  conclusion  is  reached 
that  it  is  because  the  priest  wears  the  sign  of  his  office  in  his 
apparel,  and  is  thus  more  conspicuous.  Many  captains  of 
sailing-vessels  will  not  take  clergymen  as  passengers  under 
any  circumstances,  always  protesting,  of  course,  that  they  do 
not  share  the  common  superstition,  but  basing  their  objec¬ 
tions  upon  the  ground  that  it  would  demoralize  the  sailors. 
A  missionary  to  one  of  the  South  American  countries  waited 
in  New  York  for  over  three  months  to  get  passage  by  a  sail¬ 
ing-vessel,  and  although  several  started  in  the  mean  time  for 
the  port  he  wanted  to  reach,  he  was  finally  obliged  to  go  on 
a  steamer  by  way  of  England.  The  steamer  was  lost  in  a 
storm  off  the  coast  of  British  Guiana.  He  and  other  of  the 
passengers  were  saved  in  the  life -boats,  but  the  chief  mate 
and  several  of  the  seamen  were  drowned.  This  superstition 
prevails  among  sailors  of  all  races,  but  the  Spaniards  aie  the 
most  sensitive  to  it,  as  they  are  to  omens  of  all  kinds.  The 
Spanish  seamen  believe  that  if  the  decks  are  wet  by  the  sea 
the  first  day  out,  they  will  have  fine  weather  for  the  rest  of 
the  voyage,  and  for  this  reason  they  often  lea\  e  theii  mooi- 
ings  in  a  storm  when  skippers  of  other  countries  would  wait 
for  fair  weather.  There  is  scarcely  a  tar  in  the  Spanish  seiw- 
ice  who  cannot  find  some  significance  in  e^eiA  incident. 

Through  the  Strait  of  Magellan  and  up  the  east  coast  of 


THE  CITY  OP  BUENOS  AYRES. 


BUENOS  AYKES. 


547 


South  America  vessels  are  followed  by  myriads  of  sea-birds — 
albatrosses,  Mother  Carey’s  chickens,  and  a  beautiful  species 
of  the  gull  variety  not  found  elsewhere,  known  as  the  “  cape 
pigeon.”  Their  plumage  is  beautiful,  of  the  purest  white, 
mixed  with  the  most  intense  black,  and  nature  has  clothed 
them  so  warmly  for  the  severe  climate  in  which  they  live 
that  their  skin  is  as  thick  as  fur,  and  is  used  for  the  manu¬ 
facture  of  robes  and  rugs.  More  than  a  hundred  breasts  of 
these  birds  are  needed  for  an  ordinary  sized  robe,  however, 
so  that  they  are  a  luxury  few  can  afford.  I  saw  in  Monte¬ 
video  a  mass  of  tiny  feathers,  black  and  white,  as  fine  and 
soft  as  eider-down,  that  was  lined  with  scarlet  silk,  and  cost 
two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars.  Nothing  more  beautiful  could 
be  imagined.  Eobes  made  of  the  breasts  of  ostriches  are 
lovely  enough,  but  one  of  cape  -  pigeons’  breasts  is  passing 
lovely. 

The  sailors  catch  them  by  throwing  overboard  a  long 
piece  of  coarse  twine  and  trailing  it  in  the  wake  of  the  ship. 
As  hundreds  of  the  birds  are  constantly  sailing  along  the 
surface  of  the  water,  they  get  tangled  in  the  cord  and  are 
drawn  in,  but  it  requires  as  much  dexterity  to  get  them 
aboard  as  to  land  a  lively  trout.  Sometimes  brass  or  tin 
tags  are  tied  to  their  necks,  with  names  and  dates  scratched 
upon  them,  when  they  are  released.  The  officers  of  our  ship 
reported  that  upon  a  previous  voyage  they  got  a  bird  'with 
one  of  these  tags  on,  hearing  inscriptions  showing  that  it  had 
been  caught  twice  before.  They  gave  the  little  stranger  an¬ 
other  indorsement  and  let  him  go.  The  albatrosses  of  the 
southern  hemisphere  are  very  large,  sometimes  measuring 
ten  and  twelve  feet  from  wing  to  wing ;  but  they  are  worth¬ 
less,  and  are  stupid,  awkward  birds,  that  often  dash  them¬ 
selves  against  the  side  of  a  ship  from  pure  stupidity. 

There  is  no  port  of  importance  between  Punta  Arenas,  in 
the  Strait,  and  the  river  Plate  except  Bahia  Blanca  (White 
Bay),  near  where  the  United  States  astronomical  expedition 
made  its  observations  at  the  last  transit  of  Yenus.  The  entire 
coast  for  fifteen  hundred  miles  is  barren  of  civilization,  except 


548 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  cabin  of  some  hardy  frontiersman,  who  has  set  up  a  ranch 
and  is  waiting  for  the  country  to  grow  down  to  him. 

Montevideo,  the  capital  of  Uruguay,  lies  a  few  miles  below 
Buenos  Ayres,  on  the  other  side  of  the  river,  and  vessels  usu¬ 
ally  touch  there,  for  it  is  a  place  of  great  commercial  impor¬ 
tance,  more  accessible  to  shipping  and  more  favorably  located. 

The  water  is  so  shal¬ 
low  that  they  anchor 
seven,  eight,  and  ten 
miles  out,  and  are 
loaded  and  unloaded 
by  means  of  flat-bot- 
tomed  lighters, which 
are  towed  back  and 

LOADING  CARGO  AT  BUENOS  AYRES.  forth.  TWO  Ol’  thl’ee 

times  a  week  during 

the  winter,  when  a  pampero  is  blowing,  the  water  is  carried 
out  to  sea  by  force  of  the  wind,  and  these  lighters  are  left 
high  and  dry  upon  a  beach  over  which  they  were  floating  a 
few  hours  before.  Then  they  have  to  be  unloaded  by  means 
of  carts  on  wheels  eight  to  ten  feet  in  diameter,  which  are 
driven  into  the  water  until  nothing  can  be  seen  of  the  mules 
that  draw  them  but  their  indignant  noses  and  nodding  ears. 
It  is  amusing  to  see  the  heads  of  these  mules  sticking  out 
of  the  water  at  an  elevation  which  must  be  very  uncom¬ 
fortable,  but  one  they  are  used  to.  Passengers  who  arrive 
on  these  occasions  are  transferred  from  the  ship  to  a  light ei, 
then  to  a  mule-cart,  and  sometimes  are  carried  ashore  on  the 
back  of  a  stormy  Italian,  who  never  fails  to  swear  bv  all  the 
saints  and  the  Virgin  that  the  man  on  his  back  is  the  heav¬ 
iest  he  has  ever  carried,  and  demands  more  than  the  regular 
fee  for  extra  baggage,  so  to  speak.  Lacking  confidence  in 
the  sincerity  of  the  cargador,  the  passenger  will  promise  him 
heaven  and  earth  and  the  sea  if  he  will  not  drop  him  into  the 
water,  and  fights  it  out  when  he  gets  ashore.  But  the  Gov¬ 
ernment,  at  an  enormous  expense,  is  constructing  a  harbor, 
and  the  use  of  carts  and  cargadores  will  soon  be  ended.  One 


BUENOS  AYEES. 


549 


clock  is  already  completed,  and  ocean  skips  may  now  lie  along¬ 
side  and  discharge  and  receive  their  cargoes.  This  Avas  opened 
Avith  great  ceremony  by  the  President  early  in  1888. 

Notwithstanding  the  commercial  disadvantages  of  Buenos 
Ayres,  it  is  the  most  enterpris¬ 
ing,  prosperous,  and  Avealthy 
city  in  South  America — a  regu¬ 
lar  Chicago — the  only  place  on 
the  Avhole  continent  where  peo¬ 
ple  seem  to  be  in  a  hurry,  and 
Avhere  everybody  you  meet  ap¬ 
pears  to  be  trying  to  overtake 
the  man  ahead  of  him.  It  is 
all  bustle  and  life  night  and 
day,  and  is  so  different  from 
the  rest  of  South  America  that 
the  traveller  is  more  impressed 
than  he  would  be  if  he  came 
direct  from  the  United  States, 
off  till  to-morrow  what  they  are  absolutely  not  compelled 
to  do  to-day.  In  the  other  countries  mail  ana  {many  and)  is 
king,  and  manana  means  to-morrow,  but  in  Buenos  Ayres 
the  idea  seems  to  be  that  the  liveliest  turkey  gets  the  most 
grasshoppers,  and  everybody  is  trying  to  get  as  many  as  he 
can.  Merchants  do  not  shut  up  shop  to  go  to  dinner,  as  is 
the  rule  elsewhere  in  Spanish-America,  and  morning  news¬ 
papers  are  not  printed  on  the  afternoon  of  the  previous  day. 
To  do  as  much  as  possible  this  week,  and  a  good  deal  more, 
is  the  motto,  and  that  accounts  for  the  progress  of  the 
republic.  , 

And  it  is  a  republic,  not  only  in  name  but  in  fact.  There 
is  no  bossism  there,  as  in  other  Spanish-American  countries. 
Every  man  is  a  sovereign,  and  he  will  not  permit  the  soldiers 
to  count  the  votes.  There  is  always  a  good  deal  of  a  rumpus 
during  election  times,  and  the  defeated  party  often  raises  a 
revolution,  but  since  the  jyrant  Rosas  Avas  overthrown,  no 
man  has  attempted  to  bully  or  oppress  the  Argentine  people. 


GOING  ASHORE  AT  BUENOS  AYRES. 

Elsewhere  people  always  put 


550 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Our  knowledge  of  tlie  Argentine  Republic  amounts  to  lit¬ 
tle  more  than  we  know  of  the  Congo  State,  and  the  man  who 
o-oes  there  from  the  United  States  is  kept  in  a  state  of  aston¬ 
ishment  until  he  leaves.  Then,  as  he  sits  on  shipboard  and 
reflects  over  what  he  has  seen,  he  cannot  find  an  exclama¬ 
tion  point  big  enough  to  do  justice  to  his  description  of  the 
country  The  Argentinians  think  it  is  wicked  indifference  on 
our  part  to  know  so  little  about  them,  for  the  surprise  of  the 
few  American  visitors  wounds  their  self-esteem.  They  are  a 
proud  people,  like  all  the  rest  of  the  Spanish  race,  and,  unlike 
some  nations,  have  many  tilings  to  be  proud  of.  They  know 
all  about  us.  There  are  many  men  in  the  Argentine  Repub¬ 
lic  who  can  tell  you  the  percentage  of  increase  in  popula¬ 
tion,  industry,  and  progress  in  the  United  States  as  shown 
bv  tho  latest  statistics,  but  how  many  people  in  the  United 
States  are  aware  that  that  country  is  growing  twice  as  fast 
as  ours  ?  How  many  members  of  the  Senate  or  the  House 
of  Representatives  at  Washington,  how  many  members  of  the 
Cabinet  or  Justices  of  the  Supreme  Court,  know  that  the  in¬ 
crease  of  population  in  the  Argentine  Republic  during  the 
last  twenty-five  years  has  been  one  hundred  and  fifty-four 
per  cent.,  while  in  the  United  States  it  has  been  only  seven¬ 
ty-nine  per  cent.,  and  that  Buenos  Ayres  is  growing  as  fast 
as  Denver  or  Minneapolis,  and  has  nearly  half  a  million  of 

inhabitants.  .  . 

The  people  are  right  when  they  assert  that  their  countn 

is  the  United  States  of  South  America,  and  there  is  nothing 
else  that  they  are  so  proud  of.  They  study  and  imitate  our 
institutions  and  our  methods,  and  in  some  cases  improve  upon 
them.  You  can  buy  the  New  York  dailies  and  illustrated 
papers  at  any  of  the  news-stands  in  Buenos  Ayres,  altkoug  1 
they  are  six  weeks  old.  and  the  people  purchase  and  read 
them.  They  understand  the  significance  of  the  cartoons  m 
Puck,  and  read  Harper's  Magazine  and  the  Century.  Blaine  s 
book  and  Grant's  Memoirs  are  on  sale,  and  the  issues  of  our 
Presidential  campaigns  are  as  well,  understood  as  their  own. 

The  greatest  benefit  to  be  derived  by  a  traveller  in  the 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


551 


countries  of  South  America  is  to  make  him  think  well  of  his 
own;  but,  nevertheless,  his  vanity  receives  a  severe  shock 
when  he  comes  to  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  discovers  how 
little  he  knows  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  world. 

The  succession  of  surprises  that  greet  one  on  either  hand 
keep  him  reminded  of  his  own  ignorance.  It  is  perfectly 
natural,  however,  because  we  have  no  communication  with 
the  Argentine  Republic,  and  have  not  had  since  the  day  when 
steam  was  substituted  for  canvas  as  a  motive  power  on  the 
sea.  There  was  a  time  when  we  almost  monopolized  the  com¬ 
merce  of  that  country,  but  during  our  civil  war  the  ships 
were  withdrawn,  and  the  sailors  went  into  the  navy.  Then 
when  peace  came  all  hands  were  called  to  the  development 
of  our  own  resources,  and  we  were  so  busily  engaged  in  build¬ 
ing  railroads,  opening  up  farms,  estabhshing  ranches,  working 
mines,  and  erecting  new  towns  and  cities  in  the  great  West, 
that  we  forgot  that  there  was  anybody  to  be  looked  after  in 
South  America.  Twenty -live  years  ago  our  knowledge  of 
the  continent  was  pretty  good,  but  we  have  learned  nothing 
since.  Our  geographies  read  as  they  did  then,  our  histories 
have  not  been  rewritten,  and  our  maps  remain  unaltered. 
But  in  the  mean  time  mighty  changes  have  been  taking  place 
among  our  neighbors  that  have  escaped  our  attention.  They 
have  been  growing  as  we  have  grown,  and  instead  of  a  few 
half -civilized,  ill-governed  people  upon  the  pampas  of  the  Ar¬ 
gentine  Republic,  a  great  nation  has  sprung  up,  as  enterpris¬ 
ing,  progressive,  and  intelligent  as  ours,  with  “  all  the  mod¬ 
ern  improvements,”  as  house  agents  say,  and  an  ambition  to 
stand  beside  the  United  States  in  the  front  rank  of  modern 
civilization.  While  we  have  been  occupied  with  our  own  in¬ 
ternal  development,  the  European  nations  have  gone  in  and 
taken  the  commerce  to  which  we  by  the  logic  of  political  and 
geographical  considerations  are  entitled. 

Twenty -four  lines  of  steamships  connect  the  Argentine 
Republic  with  the  markets  of  Europe,  and  from  fifty  to 
sixty  vessels  are  sailing  back  and  forth  each  month.  In  the 
harbor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  or  in  what  they  call  the  harbor,  are 


552 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


dozens  of  steamships  and  scores  of  sailing-vessels,  showing 
every  flag  but  that  of  the  United  States ;  for  an  American 
steamer  never  goes  there,  and  only  occasionally  a  bark  or 
brigantine,  chartered  at  A  ew  \  ork  or  Philadelphia,  with  a 
cargo  of  lumber  or  railway  supplies.  Nearly  all  the  goods 
these  people  buy  of  us  are  sent  by  way  of  kurope,  as  mails 
and  passengers  usually  go,  and  very  little  is  bought  in  the 
United  States  that  can  be  purchased  elsewhere.  The  reason 


A.  PRIVATE  RESIDENCE  IN  BUENOS  AYRES. 


for  this  is  very  plain— we  have  no  transportation  facilities 
while  those  afforded  for  trade  in  Europe  are  as  regular  and 
convenient  as  exist  between  Liverpool  and  New  York 

And  this  trade  is  worth  having.  The  Argentine  Repub¬ 
lic"  imported  $117,352,125  worth  of  manufactured  merchan¬ 
dise  during  the  fiscal  year  1887-8,  of  which  about  one-third 
is  from  England,  one-fifth  from  France,  one-fifth  from  Ger- 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


553 


many,  while  the  United  States  comes  in  at  the  tail-end  of  the 
list,  along  with  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  Chili.  While  Eng¬ 
land  sent  $35,375,628  worth  there  in  1885,  we  sent  $7,000,000 
worth,  mostly  lumber,  railway  locomotives  and  cars,  and  ag¬ 
ricultural  implements.  While  she  sent  $7,000,000  worth  of 
cotton  goods,  we  sent  $600,000  worth ;  while  she  sent  nearly 
$7,000,000  worth  of  hardware  and  other  manufactures  of  iron 
and  steel,  we  sent  about  $500,000  worth ;  and  so  on,  down 
through  the  list  of  manufactured  articles  in  which  we,  with 
equal  transportation  facilities,  can  compete  with  any  nation  on 
the  globe.  Our  goods  are  more  popular  there,  as  everywhere 
in  South  America,  so  popular  that  the  manufacturers  at  Man¬ 
chester  and  Birmingham  imitate  our  trade-marks,  and  send 
cargoes  of  merchandise  which  appears  to  have  been  produced 
in  the  United  States,  but  never  got  nearer  to  Yankeeland 
than  Liverpool. 

There  is  not  a  country  in  all  the  world  so  deserving  of  atten¬ 
tion  as  this,  and  particularly  of  our  attention,  for  the  time  is 
drawing  near  when  we  must  confront  the  results  of  its  enter¬ 
prise  in  the  markets  of  the  world.  In  its  resources  as  well  as 
in  the  character  of  its  people  it  resembles  the  United  States. 
Here  are  found  pampas  like  our  prairies,  rich  and  fertile  in 
the  lowlands,  and  covered  with  fine  ranges  as  they  rise  in 
mighty  terraces  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Andes;  while  in 
the  foot-hills  of  the  mountains  are  deposits  of  gold  and  silver 
similar  to  those  of  Colorado,  whose  wealth  is  yet  untold.  In 
the  north  is  a  soil  that  will  produce  cotton,  rice,  and  sugar, 
like  Louisiana  and  Texas  ;  then  come  tobacco  lands,  like  those 
of  Virginia  and  Tennessee ;  then,  as  the  temperature  grows 
colder  towards  the  south,  are  wheat  and  corn  fields,  as  yet  a 
tithe  of  them  untilled,  but  suggesting  Iowa,  Nebraska,  and 
Kansas.  This  vast  area,  as  vast  as  that  which  lies  between 
Indiana  and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  is  furnished  with  natural 
highways  even  more  tempting  to  navigation  than  the  Missis¬ 
sippi,  the  Ohio,  and  the  Missouri  rivers,  and  which  find  their 
sources  in  forests  as  extensive  as  those  that  shelter  our  great 
lakes. 


554 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Already  the  pampas  produce  wheat  enough  for  domestic 
consumption  and  237,865,925  kilos  for  export,  and  the  pro¬ 
duction  is  increasing  with  the  greatest  rapidity.  Nearly 
100,000,000  sheep — more  than  are  owned  in  any  country  of 
the  world — are  grazing  on  the  ranges,  and  producing  200,000- 
000  pounds  of  wool  for  export ;  already  beef  and  mutton  are 
sent  to  England  in  refrigerator  ships  at  prices  cheaper  than 
we  can  compete  with,  and  few  of  our  people  know  it. 

A  mistaken  notion  prevails  everywhere  among  the  Ameri¬ 


can  people  about 
the  social  and  po- 

THE  COLON  THEATRE.  BUENOS  AYRES.  litioal  Condition  Of 

the  Argentine  Re¬ 
public,  as  well  as  about  its  commerce.  There  are  banks  at 
Buenos  Ayres  with  capital  greater  than  any  in  the  ITnited 
States,  and  occupying  buildings  finer  than  any  banking-house 
in  New  York,  palaces  of  marble  and  glass  and  iron.  The  Pro¬ 
vincial  Bank  has  a  capital  of  $40,000,000,  and  $100,000,000  of 
deposits.  It  does  more  business  than  any  one  of  our  banks, 
and  more  than  the  Imperial  Bank  of  Germany,  being  exceeded 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


555 


by  but  two  banks  in  the  world.  The  National  Bank  has  a 
capital  of  $40,000,000,  another  has  $12,500,000,  another  has 
$10,000,000,  and  several  have  $6,000,000.  According  to  an 
official  statement  in  1888,  there  were  twenty-five  banks  hav¬ 
ing  an  aggregate  capital  of  $182,000,000.  Several  of  them 
pay  more  than  20  per  cent,  dividends ;  while  one,  the  Banco 
Constructor,  in  1887,  paid  a  50  per  cent,  dividend.  They  have 
a  Board  of  Trade  and  a  Stock  Exchange,  where  business  is 
conducted  upon  the  same  plan  as  in  New  York  or  Chicago, 
and  with  as  great  an  amount  of  excitement. 

There  are  more  daily  papers  in  Buenos  Ayres  than  in  New 
York  or  London — twenty-three  in  all.  Two  of  the  dailies 
are  published  in  the  English  language,  one  in  French,  one  in 
German,  and  one  in  Italian ;  the  rest  are  in  Spanish.  There 
are  two  illustrated  weeklies,  one  of  them  comic,  and  three 
monthly  literary  magazines.  The  leading  daily,  La  Nation , 
is  a  great  blanket-sheet  larger  than  the  New  York  Evening 
Post ,  and  has  a  circulation  of  thirty  thousand  copies.  The 
expression  of  opinion  in  the  newspapers  is  as  free  as  *with 
us,  and  the  editors  are  not  under  such  restrictions  as  in  other 
of  the  South  American  republics.  There  is  a  peculiar  law 
of  libel,  and  editors  charged  with  this  offence  are  tried  by 
what  is  called  a  jury  of  honor,  a  sort  of  arbitrating  commit¬ 
tee,  who  decide  upon  the  justice  of  the  facts  stated.  Some¬ 
times  they  compel  the  publisher  to  apologize,  but  more  often 
console  the  complainant  with  advice  “  to  grin  and  bear  it.” 
The  telephone  and  electric  light  are  used  extensively  as  in  the 
United  States,  there  being  two  telephone  companies,  and  the 
manager  of  one  told  me  that  the  number  of  instruments  en¬ 
gaged  is  larger  in  proportion  to  population  than  any  city  in 
the  world. 

There  are  twenty -five  theatres  in  Buenos  Ayres,  giv¬ 
ing  performances  every  night  in  the  week,  including  Sun¬ 
day,  a  permanent  Italian  opera,  and  a  permanent  French 
opera  bouffe.  One  of  the  theatres  is  English,  with  all  the 
plays  given  in  that  language,  another  is  French,  and  a  third 
is  Italian ;  the  rest  are  Spanish.  There  is  a  curious  innova- 


556 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tion  in  theatre  and  opera  management  in  Buenos  Ayres, 
which  might  be  imitated  by  managers  in  the  United  States. 
The  first  gallery,  or  what  we  call  the  “dress  cii’cle,”  is  re¬ 
served  exclusively  for  ladies,  and  no  gentlemen  are  admitted. 
There  is  a  separate  box-office  and  entrance,  and  ladies  who 
desire  to  attend  but  have  no  escorts  are  thus  given  an  oppor¬ 
tunity  without  being  subjected  to  the  annoyances  suffered 
if  they  go  in  the  usual  way.  They  can  ride  to  the  private 
entrance  in  street-car  or  cab,  and  be  as  safe  from  the  imper¬ 
tinence  of  loafers  as  if  they  had  a  dozen  brothers  or  husbands 
around  them.  These  galleries  are  almost  always  filled,  which 
is  the  best  evidence  of  their  popularity  and  the  success  of  the 
system. 

Buenos  Ayres  has  its  parks,  boulevards,  and  race  -  courses, 
like  other  modern  cities ;  in  fact,  there  is  nothing  in  the  line 
of  civilized  amusements  that  it  is  without.  Everybody  keeps 
a  carriage  and  nearly  everybody  rides.  Nowhere  in  the 
world  are  horses  so  cheap,  and  the  stock  as  well  as  the  equi¬ 
pages  are  very  fine.  A  good  pair  of  carriage-horses,  the  very 
best,  can  be  had  for  one  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  saddle- 
horses  that  are  equal  to  any  in  the  world  can  be  purchased 
for  thirty  or  forty  dollars.  The  Argentine  horseman  invests 
his  money  in  silver-mounted  saddles  and  bridles,  and  a  riding- 
gear  with  solid -silver  stirrups,  heavily  mounted  saddle,  etc., 
is  worth  between  four  and  five  hundred  dollars.  All  the 
swells  have  them,  and  the  ladies  who  ride  ai’e  similarly 
mounted,  having  a  beautiful  stirrup  in  the  form  of  a  slipper, 
often  of  solid  silver.  The  parks  and  boulevards  are  crowded 
with  haughty  dons  and  ravishing  senoritas  during  driving 
hours,  and  present  a  very  brilliant  and  attractive  scene. 

The  two  Argentine  Universities,  under  the  patronage  of 
the  Government,  are  among  the  best  in  America,  and  rank 
with  Yale  or  Harvard  in  curriculum  and  standard  of  educa¬ 
tion.  They  have  large  and  able  faculties,  many  of  them  Ger¬ 
mans,  with  four  branches,  namely,  law,  medicine,  engineer¬ 
ing,  and  scientific,  and  the  ordinary  classical  course.  The 
library  has  about  sixty  thousand  volumes,  representing  the 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


557 


literature  of  all  languages,  and  the  museum  is  quite  exten¬ 
sive.  The  public-school  system  is  also  under  the  patronage 
of  the  Government,  under  a  compulsory  education  law,  and 
includes  all  grades  from  the  kindergarten  to  the  normal 
school.  The  late  eminent  ex- President  of  the  Republic,  Dr. 
Sarmiento,  who  was  formerly  Minister  to  the  United  States, 
was  the  especial  patron  of  education,  and  it  was  his  ambition 
to  make  the  school  system  of  the  Argentine  Republic  the 
finest  in  the  world.  He  studied  the  educational  systems  of 
all  our  States,  and  finally  adopted  that  of  Michigan  for  his 
own  country. 

Ex-President  Sarmiento  was  the  leading  advocate  of  the 
higher  education  of  women  in  South  America,  having  gained 
his  advanced  ideas  while  Minister  to  the  United  States.  He 
was  an  intimate  friend  and  regular  correspondent  of  Mrs. 
Horace  Mann,  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Cady 
Stanton,  and  other  prominent  women  in  the  United  States, 
and  imbibed  from  them  the  theories  of  the  equality  of  the 
sex  which  their  lives  have  been  spent  in  demonstrating. 
Through  his  instrumentality  some  forty  American  girls, 
graduates  of  Vassar,  Wellesley,  Mount  Holyoke,  and  West¬ 
ern  institutions,  have  been  employed  under  liberal  contracts 
by  the  Argentine  Government  in  the  normal  schools  and 
female  seminaries  of  the  country,  and  their  success  has  been 
phenomenal.  These  teachers  receive  salaries  varying  from 
one  hundred  to  one  hundred  and  sixty  dollars  per  month, 
and  are  placed  in  positions,  social  as  well  as  professional, 
which  they  could  not  hope  to  acquire  at  home.  In  every 
instance  they  have  conducted  themselves  with  the  most  com¬ 
mendable  dignity ;  and  although  some  of  the  economists  in 
Congress  and  in  the  newspapers  are  grumbling  over  the  large 
salaries  they  receive,  they  are  treated  with  the  greatest  dis¬ 
tinction,  and  are  entertained  by  the  Government  in  a  manner 
that  our  own  educational  authorities  might  well  imitate. 

One  of  them,  Miss  Frances  Armstrong,  had  a  controversy 
with  the  Papal  Nuncio,  which  caused  a  great  amount  of  excite¬ 
ment.  He  attempted  to  interfere  with  the  management  of 


558 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


her  school,  on  the  ground  that  she  was  proselyting  the  chil¬ 
dren  to  Protestantism.  She  gave  the  envoy  of  his  Holiness 
the  Pope  to  understand  that  she  was  running  that  institution, 
and  when  he  brought  the  case  to  the  attention  of  the  Govern¬ 
ment  she  defended  herself  with  such  success  that  the  Presi¬ 
dent  of  the  Argentine  Republic  sent  him  his  passport  and  ad¬ 
vised  him  to  take  the  next  steamer  for  Rome.  The  archbishop 
interfered,  and  he  was  summarily  banished  also.  Since  then 
the  Pope  has  been  without  an  ambassador  in  the  republic, 
but  the  Yankee  school-ma’am  is  solid  with  the  Government 
and  the  people,  and  goes  on  teaching  heresy. 

A  Brazilian  who  Avent  to  Cornell  University,  for  an  edu¬ 
cation  married  an  Ithaca  girl,  and  took  her  back  to  Brazil, 
where  he  is  engaged  as  a  civil  engineer.  There  are  a  good 
many  young  Spanish-Americans  Avitli  English  Avives.  More 
of  the  men  go  to  England  than  to  the  United  States  for  col¬ 
legiate  training,  for  the  reason  that  the  English  universities 
advertise  down  there,  while  the  American  colleges  do  not. 
There  is  no  necessity  for  the  Argentinians  to  send  their  sons 
away  for  learning,  as  their  educational  system  is  as  good 
as  our  own,  and  the  most  expensive  in  the  world,  with  the 
exception  of  Australia.  The  amount  expended  by  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  for  educational  purposes  is  §10.20  per  pupil  annu¬ 
ally,  Avhile  in  the  United  States  it  averages  only  §8.70,  in 
Germany  §6.00,  and  in  England  §9.10.  There  are  thirty  col¬ 
leges  and  normal  schools  for  the  higher  education  of  men  and 
women  in  the  republic,  with  467  teachers  and  9246  students, 
and  3215  public  schools  with  7918  teachers  and  257,402  pu¬ 
pils,  in  a  total  population  of  less  than  4,000,000. 

The  Government  of  Chili,  Avhieh  attempts  a  close  competi¬ 
tion  with  the  Argentine  Republic  in  matters  of  education  as 
Avell  as  other  modern  improvements,  has  contracted  Avith  fifty 
young  ladies  from  Germany  to  manage  its  female  seminaries 
and  normal  schools  at  much  loAver  salaries  than  the  Yankee 
schoolma’ams  receive. 

The  Argentinians  have  made  as  rapid  advancement  in  the 
wav  of  charity  and  philanthropy  as  in  education,  and  one 


BUENOS  AYEES. 


559 


finds  throughout  the  country  as  many  benevolent  institutions 
as  in  New  York  or  other  cities  of  the  United  States  in  pro¬ 
portion  to  the  population.  There  are  hospitals,  dispensaries, 
homes  for  the  indigent  aged,  orphan  asylums,  blind,  and  deaf 
•and  dumb  asylums,  insane  asylums,  public  libraries,  free  art 
schools,  and  all  sorts  of  institutions  founded  by  benevolence 
and  liberally  endowed.  There  is  a  Board  of  Health  enforcing 
strict  sanitary  regulations,  the  streets  are  swept  every  night, 
the  police  are  admirably  organized,  the  public  buildings  and 
parks  are  lighted  by  electricity,  and  all  the  features  of  mod¬ 
ern  civilization  have  been  introduced  into  the  political  and 
domestic  economy.  The  plantation  owners  mostly  reside  in 
Buenos  Ayres,  and  have  telephonic  wires  between  their  offices 
and  estancias.  Instead  of  yelling  “  Hello !”  into  a  telephone, 
they  say  “  Oyez,  oyez !”  as  our  bailiffs  do  when  they  open 
court. 

The  post-office  of  Buenos  Ayres  handled  30,390,500  pack¬ 
ages  in  1887,  which  is  pretty  good  for  a  city  of  472,000  inhab¬ 
itants,  and  its  progress  is  no  better  illustrated  than  by  the  in¬ 
crease  of  mails.  In  1865  only  1,000,000  pieces  were  handled 
by  this  office,  and  in  1875  only  7,000,000 ;  while  during  the 
first  six  months  of  1888  over  19,000,000  pieces  passed  through 
the  office.  There  is  a  mail  leaving,  and  arriving  for  and  from 
Europe  nearly  every  day,  but  all  mail  for  the  United  States 
goes  and  comes  by  way  of  Great  Britain,  because  of  the  lack 
of  direct  steamship  communication. 

There  are  three  gas  companies  with  312  miles  of  pipe,  light¬ 
ing  27,900  houses  or  stores,  with  3300  street-lamps.  There 
are  32  miles  of  paved  streets,  40  miles  of  sewers,  some  of 
which  are  large  enough  for  a  railway-train  to  pass  through. 
There  are  1100  licensed  hacks,  and  2715  licensed  express- 
wagons;  five  street-railway  companies,  with  110  miles  of 
track,  carrying  23,000,000  passengers  in  1887.  The  enormous 
growth  of  the  city  can  best  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  ten 
thousand  buildings  were  erected  in  1888,  according  to  official 
reports. 

Throughout  South  America  all  the  dentists  and  many  of 


560 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  photographers  are  immigrants  from  the  United  States, 
and  if  there  is  any  one  among  them  who  is  not  getting  rich  he 
has  nobody  but  himself  to  find  fault  with,  because  the  natives 
give  both  professions  plenty  to  do.  Nowhere  in  the  world  is 
so  large  an  amount  of  confectionery  consumed  in  proportion 
to  the  population  as  in  Spanish  America,  and  as  a  natural  con¬ 
sequence  the  teeth  of  the  people  require  a  great  deal  of  atten 
tion.  As  a  usual  thing  Spaniards  have  good  teeth,  as  the}r 
always  have  beautiful  eyes,  and  are  very  particular  in  keep¬ 
ing  them  in  condition,  lienee  the  dentists  are  kept  busy,  and 
as  they  charge  twice  as  much  as  they  do  in  the  United  States, 
the  profits  are  very  large.  In  these  countries  it  is  the  cus¬ 
tom  to  serve  sweetmeats  at  every  meal — dulces,  as  they  are 
called — preserved  fruits  of  the  richest  sort,  jellies,  and  confec¬ 
tions  of  every  variety  and  description.  Many  of  these  are 
made  by  the  nuns  in  the  convents,  and  are  sold  to  the  public 
either  through  the  confectionery  stores  or  by  private  applica¬ 
tion.  A  South  American  housewife,  instead  of  ordering  jams 
and  preserves  and  jellies  from  her  grocer,  or  putting  up  a  sup¬ 
ply  in  her  own  kitchen  during  the  fruit  season,  patronizes  the 
nuns,  and  gets  a  better  article  at  a  lower  price.  The  nuns 
are  very  ingenious  in  this  work,  and  prepare  forms  of  delica¬ 
cies  which  are  unknown  to  our  table. 

At  a  dinner-party  I  attended  dessert  was  brought  in  in  a 
novel  form.  A  tray  which  appeared  to  be  filled  with  hard- 
boiled  eggs  was  placed  before  the  hostess,  who  gave  each 
guest  a  couple,  and  poured  over  them  some  sort  of  a  syrup  or 
dressing.  In  a  strange  country  the  tourist  is  always  on  the 
lookout  for  odd  things  ;  but  this  seemed  to  cap  the  climax — 
hard-boiled  eggs  for  dessert  at  a  swell  dinner-party.  But  it 
was  soon  discovered  that  the  white  of  this  bogus  egg  was 
blanc -mange,  and  the  yolk  was  made  of  quince  jelly,  egg¬ 
shells  being  used  for  moulds.  This  was  an  idea  of  the  nuns, 
and  one  of  their  ingenious  fixings. 

The  atmosphere  is  so  clear  as  to  be  admirable  for  pho¬ 
tography.  The  Spanish-American  belle  has  her  photograph 
taken  every  time  she  gets  a  new  dress,  and  that  is  very 


BUENOS  AYEES. 


561 


often.  The  Paris  styles  reach  here  as  soon  as  they  do  the 
North  American  cities,  and  where  the  national  costumes  are 
not  still  worn  there  is  a  great  deal  of  elaborate  dressing. 
The  Argentine  Republic  is  one  of  the  few  countries  in 
which  photographs  of  ladies  are  not  sold  in  the  shops.  Else¬ 
where  there  is  a  craze  for  portraits  of  reigning  beauties,  and 
the  young  men  have  their  rooms  filled  with  photographs 
of  the  girls  they  admire  taken  in  all  sorts  of  costumes  and 
attitudes. 

There  are  in  South  America  a  great  many  physicians  and 
surgeons  from  the  United  States,  and  they  usually,  if  worthy, 
have  a  more  extensive  practice  than  the  natives.  There  is 
an  excellent  field  for  female  physicians  here,  and  it  is  at  pres¬ 
ent  unoccupied.  In  most  of  the  countries  of  South  America 
a  physician  is  not  permitted  to  see  a  lady  patient  except  in 
the  presence  of  her  husband,  and  many  women  die  for  lack 
of  attention.  The  social  laws  are  inflexible  in  this  respect, 
and  many  women  will  suffer  torments  rather  than  expose 
themselves  to  criticism  by  receiving  treatment  from  male  prac¬ 
titioners.  No  woman,  except  she  be  of  the  common  laboring 
class,  will  visit  the  office  of  a  physician,  and  as  fees  for  at¬ 
tendance  at  their  homes  are  very  high,  many  suffer  and  die 
from  neglect  based  upon  motives  of  modesty  and  economy. 
There  is  only  one  lady  physician  that  I  know  of  in  South 
America,  and  she  is  practising  with  great  success  in  Guate¬ 
mala.  Others  might  secure  equal  advantages  in  Venezuela, 
Colombia,  Peru,  Chili,  the  Argentine  Republic,  Uruguay,  and 
Brazil ;  but  it  would  be  necessary  for  them  to  acquire  a  thor¬ 
ough  knowledge  of  the  Spanish  language,  and  secure  favora¬ 
ble  introductions  before  hanging  out  their  shingles.  These 
introductions  might  be  obtained  through  the  American  con¬ 
suls  and  legations,  or  from  merchants  of  social  and  commer¬ 
cial  standing.  There  is  a  strong  prejudice  against  the  profes¬ 
sional  employment  of  native  women,  but  the  American  ladies 
who  have  come  to  South  America  as  teachers  have  not  only 
been  cordially  received  but  in  many  cases  have  been  lionized. 
In  many  of  the  aristocratic  families  American  girls  are  em- 
36 


562 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ployed  as  governesses,  and  are  treated  with  great  deference. 
Mrs.  Barrios,  the  widow  of  the  late  President  of  Guatemala, 
had  three  New  York  ladies  in  her  family — one  as  a  compan¬ 
ion  for  herself,  and  the  other  two  employed  in  the  nursery. 
In  Peru,  Chili,  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  other  countries 
French  and  English  governesses  are  common,  and  in  fact 
there  are  few  others  employed,  as  the  native  girls  who  would 
accept  such  positions  lack  the  necessary  education. 

The  people  of  Buenos  Ayres,  in  1888,  were  called  upon  to 
mourn  the  death  of  two  of  their  most  distinguished  fellow- 
citizens,  Dr.  Sarmiento,  the  ex-President,  and  Samuel  B.  Hale, 
Esq.,  formerly  of  Boston,  who  was  the  most  prominent  mer¬ 
chant  and  capitalist  in  the  country.  There  was  no  man  in 
all  South  America  more  respected  and  beloved,  or  who  pos¬ 
sessed  the  confidence  of  the  people  to  a  greater  degree  than 
Samuel  B.  Hale.  lie  went  from  Boston  in  1S29  to  do  a  little 
trading,  and  remained  until  his  death,  amassing  a  large  fort¬ 
une,  and  being  able,  as  the  end  drew  near,  to  look  back  upon 
such  a  career  as  very  few  men  are  permitted  to  contemplate. 

Although  we  of  the  United  States  have  very  little  to  do 
with  the  Argentine  Republic  nowadays,  the  pioneers  of  that 
country  were  Americans.  In  1S26  William  Wheelwright,  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  wrecked  upon  this  coast,  and  found  his 
way  to  a  small  town  named  Quilmes,  barefooted,  hatless,  and 
starving.  He  remained  in  the  country,  and  forty  years  later 
built  the  first  railroad  in  the  Argentine  Republic — from  Bue¬ 
nos  Ayres  to  Quilmes.  But  in  the  mean  time  lie  had  done 
still  greater  service  in  establishing  the  first  steamship  line  be¬ 
tween  Europe  and  South  America — the  Pacific  Steam  Navi¬ 
gation  Company — which  now  has  a  monopoly  of  the  traffic 
on  the  west  coast,  and  sails  vessels  from  Panama  through  the 
Strait  of  Magellan  to  Liverpool.  In  1839  Mr.  Wheelwright 
foresaw  the  immense  trade  these  countries  were  capable  of 
developing,  and  went  to  New  York  to  present  his  scheme  to 
Aspinwall,  Garrison,  Astor,  Vanderbilt,  and  other  capitalists, 
but  they  rejected  it.  He  then  went  to  England,  where  he 
secured  the  necessary  capital,  established  his  line,  and  turned 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


563 


the  whole  course  of  South  American  commerce  from  its  nat¬ 
ural  channel.  Every  one  connected  with  the  company  has 
made  a  fortune,  and  dividends  of  fourteen  and  fifteen  per 
cent,  are  still  paid.  In  1852  there  were  in  the  harbor  of  Bue¬ 
nos  Ayres  six  hundred  vessels  from  the  United  States — more 
than  double  the  number  from  all  other  nations  combined. 
Now  only  two  per  cent,  of  the  shipping  annually  reaching 
that  harbor  belongs  to  the  United  States.  Both  Chili  and 
the  Argentine  Bepublic  have  erected  fine  monuments  to  Mr. 
Wheelwright,  the  father  of  their  foreign  commerce  and  their 
internal  improvements,  for  he  built  the  first  railway  in  Chili 
as  he  did  in  the  Argentine  Republic. 

Another  citizen  of  the  United  States,  Thomas  Lloyd  Hal¬ 
sey  of  New  Jersey,  introduced  sheep  and  cattle.  The  Span¬ 
iards  had  a  few  domestic  animals  before  the  independence  of 
the  republic,  but  Mr.  Halsey  established  the  first  ranch.  Now 
there  are  ouer  ninety  million  sheep  and  thirty  million  cattle 
in  the  country.  Both  Wheelwright  and  Halsey  are  dead.  Mr. 
Hale,  who  was  contemporary  with  them,  and  was  the  pioneer 
commission  merchant  and  importer,  died  in  1888.  His  im¬ 
mense  business  interests  are  now  in  the  hands  of  Mr.  Pierson, 
his  son-in-law,  also  a  Boston  man,  who  went  out  as  a  clerk 
thirty  years  ago ;  and  the  husband  of  another  daughter  rep¬ 
resents  the  London  banking-house  of  Baring  Brothers  in  Bue¬ 
nos  Ayres. 

In  the  old  days  Mr.  Hale  bought  wool  and  hides  and  furs 
in  the  Argentine  Republic  and  in  Uruguay,  and  shipped  them 
to  Boston.  The  vessels  returned  loaded  with  cotton  goods 
and  Yankee  notions  of  all  sorts,  which  were  exchanged  for 
the  produce ;  and  this  system  of  barter  went  on  until  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion,  when  most  of  the  vessels  were  withdrawn, 
and  the  tariff  on  wool  made  it  unprofitable  to  ship  the  chief 
product  of  the  republic  to  the  United  States.  Then  Mr.  Hale 
turned  his  attention  to  the  European  trade,  and  did  a  very 
large  business  in  exporting  and  importing  until  about  1880, 
when  he  sold  out  to  Mr.  C.  S.  Bowers,  also  a  Boston  man,  and 
retired  from  the  market. 


564 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


During  the  later  years  of  his  life  Mr.  Hale  did  little  in 
trade,  and  devoted  most  of  his  attention  to  loaning  money 
and  dealing  in  standard  securities.  In  addition  to  his  com¬ 
mercial  business,  Mr.  Hale  owned  and  managed  some  of  the 
largest  estancias  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  having  several 
hundred  thousand  sheep  and  sixty  thousand  cattle.  He  was 


nOTEL  TO  BE  ERECTED  AT  BUENOS  ATRES. 


famous  for  his  hospitality  and  generosity,  and  many  of  the 
philanthropic  institutions  of  the  country  have  enjoyed  with 
him  the  financial  results  of  his  successful  career.  He  was 
also  very  active  in  the  promotion  of  public  enterprises  and  in 
encouraging  steamship  lines,  and  was  not  only  the  oldest  and 
most  prominent  merchant,  but  was  regarded  as  the  leading 
public  benefactor. 


BUENOS  AYKES. 


565 


The  social  condition  of  the  Argentine  Republic  is  as  much 
advanced  as  its  commerce,  and  the  old  customs  are  rapidly 
dying  out.  The  education  of  girls  has  become  popular,  and 
the  young  ladies  are  no  longer  restricted  in  their  association 
with  men,  as  in  other  Spanish  -  American  countries.  For¬ 
merly,  if  a  young  man  fell  in  love  with  a  girl,  he  told  her 
father  or  grandmother  about  it,  which  was  about  as  satis¬ 
factory  as  kissing  through  a  telephone.  Under  the  new 
regime  etiquette  gives  him  the  privilege  of  telling  the  old, 
old  story  into  the  girl’s  own  ear,  and  it  appears  to  work  just 
as  well  for  all  concerned. 

It  is  the  only  country  in  South  America  in  which  girls  can 
go  out  riding  with  their  lovers,  or  receive  them  at  home 
as  they  do  in  the  United  States.  The  supposition  that  it  is 
unsafe  to  leave  a  woman  alone  with  any  man  but  her  hus¬ 
band  or  father  does  not  exist  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  ex¬ 
cept  among  some  of  the  families  of  the  ancient  Spanish  aris¬ 
tocracy  which  still  adhere  to  the  old  tradition. 

One  finds  a  good  deal  of  club  life  in  Buenos  Ayres,  there 
being  as  many  as  seven  fine  club-houses,  most  of  which  have 
all  the  modern  improvements,  with  reading-rooms  attached, 
in  which  are  found  newspapers  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Their  restaurants  and  cafes  are  as  good  as  the  average  in 
New  York  and  London,  and  the  people  being  epicurean  in 
their  tastes,  caterers  import  delicacies  from  all  parts  of  the 
world.  Lobsters  and  Spanish  mackerel  are  brought  in  refrig¬ 
erator  ships,  and  Southdown  mutton  from  England,  with  all 
sorts  of  delicacies  from  France.  One  day  I  saw  a  negro  going 
through  the  streets  with  a  large  tray  on  his  head,  containing 
a  leg  of  mutton,  a  haunch  of  venison,  Spanish  mackerel,  lob¬ 
sters,  shrimps,  and  oysters,  and  a  printed  placard  upon  his 
back  announcing  that  dishes  of  this  sort  were  served  daily  at 
the  Maison  de  Paris. 

The  hotels  are  not  good,  but  a  new  one  is  now  projected 
by  a  syndicate  of  capitalists,  which  will  be  as  fine  as  any  in 
London  or  New  York.  They  have  no  regular  rates,  but 
charge  each  guest  as  much  as  his  appearance  and  manners 


566 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


suggest  he  can  afford  to  pay.  When  they  get  hold  of  an 
American,  as  citizens  of  the  United  States  are  always  called, 
they  bleed  him  to  the  last  drop.  “  I  thought  you  Americans 
never  disputed  a  hotel-bill,”  a  Boniface  said  to  me  one  day, 
when  I  had  expressed  my  indignation  at  his  charges.  “We 
always  expect  Englishmen  to,  but  Americans  never,”  and  he 
shrugged  his  shoulders  as  if  my  conduct  was  a  disgrace  to  my 
country. 

The  steamers  which  run  from  Buenos  Ayres  to  Montevideo 
and  up  the  river  to  Paraguay  are,  to  the  surprise  of  every 
traveller,  as  line  and  gorgeous  as  those  on  Long  Island  Sound 
— great,  splendid  palaces  with  no  end  of  gilt  and  gingerbread- 
work,  with  stewards  and  cabin-boys  in  livery,  wine-rooms, 
smoking-rooms,  bands  of  music,  and  all  that  sort  of  thing. 
There  are  two  lines  in  active  rivalry,  and  they  are  trying  to 
see  which  can  set  the  liner  table.  The  bill  of  fare  is  as  good 
as  that  of  a  first-class  hotel  in  New  York,  and  two  kinds  of 
wine,  claret  and  Rhine  wine,  are  served  without  extra  charge. 
On  each  steamer  are  three  or  four  swell  cabins,  called  bridal 
chambers,  each  being  fitted  up  without  regard  to  expense,  and 
containing  all  the  Hub-dubs  that  can  be  crowded  into  them, 
including  pianos  and  sideboards,  with  well -filled  bottles  of 
wine  anti  brandy  in  the  rack,  all  included  in  the  price  of  pas¬ 
sage,  which  is  double  that  of  the  ordinary  cabin.  The  swells 
always  take  these  cabins  when  they  start  off  on  a  bridal  tour. 

The  finest  church  in  Buenos  Ayres  is  called  the  “Church 
of  the  Recolletta*’  (remembrance).  It  is  of  pure  Roman  archi¬ 
tecture,  in  Italian  marble,  beautifully  carved,  and  cost  about 
$250,000.  It  is  the  property  of  Senor  Don  Carlos  Guerrero, 
a  wealthy  citizen,  who  erected  it  as  a  memorial  to  his  daugh¬ 
ter,  who  was  murdered  by  a  rejected  lover  about  ten  years 
ago.  She  is  buried  under  the  altar,  and  the  magnificent 
stained  glass  window  imported  from  Florence  represents  inci¬ 
dents  from  her  life. 

The  cathedral  is  a  very  large  and  costly  building,  but  it 
looks  more  like  a  bank  or  Government  palace  than  a  church. 
TYithin  the  walls  is  the  mausoleum  of  General  Saint -Martin, 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


567 


the  George  Washington  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  who  liber¬ 
ated  the  country  from  the  Spanish  yoke  and  was  then  turned 
out  to  die  in  exile  and  poverty.  In  1880  the  remains  of  the 
Liberator  were  brought  with  great  pomp  from  France,  where 
he  had  died  in  1850,  in  banishment,  and  were  entombed  under 
a  costly  and  imposing  sepulchre,  which,  however,  looks  very 


THE  CATHEDRAL  OP  BUENOS  AYRES. 


little  like  a  tomb,  and  is  entirely  without  sacred  emblems. 
Four  statues  in  marble  guard  the  grave ;  not  Faith,  Hope, 
and  Charity,  but  “  Agriculture,”  “  Industry,”  “  Justice,”  and 
“Liberty.”  It  looks  rather  queer  to  see  the  emblem  of  In¬ 
dustry  with  hammer  and  saw  over  a  tomb  in  a  church,  but 
the  Argentines  evidently  have  not  noticed  the  incongruity. 


568 


THE  CAPITAL#  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Besides  the  twenty-four  churches  belonging  to  the  Catho¬ 
lics,  the  Protestant  community  is  pretty  well  supplied  with 
religious  advantages.  There  are  a  Church  of  England  society, 
a  Scotch  Presbyterian,  an  American  Presbyterian,  a  German 
Evangelical,  three  Methodist  churches,  and  a  Jewish  syn- 
agogue — the  only  one  in  all  Spanish  Americd.  Jews  are  not 
allowed  to  live  in  some  of  the  countries;  but  in  the  Argen¬ 
tine  Bepublic,  where  religious  as  well  as  civil  liberty  is  pro¬ 
tected,  they  are  numerous,  and  worship  every  Saturday.  In 
ISS-f  the  Methodists  celebrated  the  twenty-fifth  anniversary 
of  their  missionary  work  in  the  country,  and  it  was  em¬ 
phasized  by  an  incident  which  attracted  a  great  deal  of  com¬ 
ment,  and  was  significant  as  showing  the  religious  toler¬ 
ation  that  exists.  Formal  invitations  were  sent  as  a  mark 
of  courtesy  to  the  President  and  all  the  prominent  officials, 
but  there  was  no  expectation  that  they  would  attend,  as  the 
great  majority  of  the  people  are  Catholics  and  the  public  men 
are  naturally  politic.  Just  as  the  services  were  about  to  com¬ 
mence,  however,  the  managers  of  the  affair  were  astonished* 
to  see  the  President,  followed  by  his  Cabinet,  walk  into  the 
church.  Conspicuous  seats  were  given  them,  and  they  seemed 
to  take  great  interest  in  the  exercises.  After  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Wood,  the  Superintendent  of  Missions,  had  concluded  his  ad¬ 
dress,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  history  of  Protestantism  in 
the  Argentine  Republic,  he  invited  President  Roca  to  speak. 
The  latter  promptly  responded ;  and  as  every  one  knew  he 
had  been  bom  and  reared  in  the  Catholic  Church,  the  audi¬ 
ence  were  amazed  at  the  eulogy  he  pronounced  upon  the 
Protestant  missionaries,  and  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he 
complimented  the  work  they  had  done.  To  their  influence  he 
attributed  much  of  the  progress  of  the  republic,  and  urged 
them  to  enlarge  their  fields  and  increase  their  zeal.  The  Pres¬ 
ident's  speech  was  commented  upon  in  the  newspapers  the 
next  day  with  a  great  deal  of  vigor,  the  Liberal  press  appro \  - 
ing  it,  but  the  Conservative  editors  censuring  what  they  con¬ 
sidered  an  attack  upon  the  prevailing  religion  of  the  people. 

There  is  a  peculiar  order  of  monks  in  the  Argentine  Repub- 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


569 


lie  which  is  not  found  elsewhere.  Its  members  are  known  as 
“  Lazarists  ”  (from  Lazarus),  and  they  live,  as  he  is  said  to  have 
done,  on  the  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  rich  man’s  table.  They 
travel  about  the  country  like  tramps,  having  no  apparent  aim 
or  purpose,  barefooted  and  bareheaded,  eat  what  they  beg 
from  door  to  door,  and  sleep  wherever  night  overtakes  them. 
They  are  supposed  to  be  members  of  the  other  orders  of 
friars,  who  have  sinned  and  are  doing  penance  as  Lazarists. 

There  is  a  place  called  Washington  and  another  called  Lin¬ 
coln  in  the  Argentine  Kepublic,  but  the  newest  thing  in  the  way 
of  towns  is  La  Plata,  the  capital  of  the  province  of  Buenos 
Ayres.  Until  within  a  few  years  that  province,  having  more 
than  half  the  population  of  the  entire  country,  has  considered 
itself  entitled  to  rule  the  rest,  as  far  as  the  Government  was 
concerned,  and  the  outlying  provinces  have  had  nothing  to 
say  about  it,  being  regarded  as  insignificant  dependencies  of 
the  city  and  State  of  Buenos  Ayres.  They  tried  to  secede,  but 
were  whipped  into  the  Union ;  but  as  immigration  has  come 
into  the  country  the  population  of  other  provinces  outnum¬ 
bers  Buenos  Ayres,  and  often  in  Presidential  campaigns  the 
contest  depends  upon  a  geographical  issue.  Boca,  the  recent 
President,  is  an  outside  man,  and  the  Buenos  Ayrians  deter¬ 
mined  to  prevent  his  inauguration  or  overthrow  his  gov¬ 
ernment  ;  but  to  mollify  them  he  announced  a  great  scheme 
of  building  a  new  capital  at  Government  expense.  There 
was  no  time  to  lay  out  a  town  site  and  let  it  grow  up  in  the 
ordinary  way,  so  the  President  sent  to  the  United  States  and 
had  five  hundred  houses  manufactured  to  order  and  shipped 
down  here,  like  a  box  of  toys,  all  ready  to  put  up.  A  loca¬ 
tion  was  selected  on  the  pampas,  all  the  revolutionary  leaders 
were  let  into  the  speculation,  war  was  averted,  and  a  brand- 
new  city  sprang  up  on  the  prairie,  like  a  bed  of  mushrooms, 
almost  in  a  single  night.  Two  or  three  millions  of  dollars 
were  spent  by  the  Government,  but  the  President  considered 
that  the  cost  of  the  town  was  much  less  than  would  have 
been  the  cost  of  the  war  that  was  averted ;  plenty  of  money 
was  put  into  circulation,  all  the  laboring  men  in  the  country 


570 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


got  lucrative  employment,  and,  as  in  the  old-fashioned  story¬ 
books,  everything  came  out  happily  in  the  end.  These  houses 
were  made  in  Brooklyn  and  Chicago :  a  New  York  firm  got 
the  contract.  There  was  so  much  haste  and  carelessness  in 
their  construction  that  they  do  not  wear  very  well,  and  are 
no  credit  to  their  builders. 

The  gaucho  ( gowcho )  of  South  America  is  the  most  inter¬ 
esting  character  on  the  continent,  and  if  the  writers  of  tales 


NEW  EXECUTIVE  MANSION  AT  BUENOS  ATBES. 


of  adventure  could  get  at  him  he  would  afford  them  as  much 
material  as  the  Crusader  of  the  Middle  Ages  or  the  North 
American  savage.  The  Spanish  colonies  have  produced  no 
Fenimore  Cooper  or  Mayne  Beid,  and  such  a  writer  as  Ned 
Buntline  is  unknown  to  South  American  literature.  Buffalo 


BUENOS  AYEES. 


571 


Bill  and  Texas  Jack  would  die  of  mortification  if  their  horse¬ 
manship  and  endurance  were  placed  in  comparison  with  that 
of  the  genuine  gaucho  of  the  pampas,  and  even  the  centaur 
of  mythology  would  blush  with  envy. 

The  gauchos  are  the  descendants  of  the  aristocratic  Spanish 
dons  and  Indian  women ;  for  the  grandees  and  hidalgos  who 
once  ruled  these  colonies  did  not  hesitate  to  seek  the  society 
of  the  Pocahontases  of  the  Guarani  race.  They  are  at  once 
the  most  indolent  and  the  most  active  of  human  beings ;  for 
when  they  are  not  in  the  saddle,  devouring  space  on  the  back 
of  a  tireless  broncho,  they  are  sleeping  in  apathetic  indolence 
among  their  mistresses  or  gambling  with  their  chums.  Half 
savage  and  half  courtier,  the  gaucho  is  as  polite  as  he  is  cruel, 
and  will  make  a  bow  like  a  dancing-master  or  thrum  an  air 
on  the  native  mandolin  with  the  same  ease  and  nonchalance 
as  he  will  murder  a  fellow-being  or  slaughter  a. steer.  He 
recognizes  no  law  but  his  own  will  and  the  unwritten  code  of 
the  cattle  -  range,  and  all  violations  of  this  code  are  punished 
by  banishment  or  death.  Whoever  offends  him  must  fight 
or  fly,  and  his  vengeance  is  as  enduring  as  it  is  vigilant.  The 
statute  of  limitations  is  not  recognized  by  him,  and  he  will 
kill  an  enemy  he  has  not  seen  for  a  quarter  of  a  century.  He 
never  shoots  or  strikes  with  his  fist,  and  his  only  weapons  are 
the  short  knife,  which  is  never  absent  from  his  hand  or  his 
belt  and  is  used  at  short  range,  and  the  lasso,  which  is  not 
only  an  implement  of  his  trade  but  an  instrument  offensive 
and  defensive. 

A  fight  between  gauchos  always  means  murder,  and  it  is 
the  duty  of  him  who  kills  to  see  that  his  victim  is  decently 
buried  and  the  widow  and  orphans  cared  for.  The  widow, 
if  she  pleases  him,  becomes  his  wife  or  his  mistress,  and  the 
orphans  grow  up  to  be  gauchos  under  his  tutelage.  He  is  as 
superstitious  as  a  Hindoo,  and  an  inveterate  gambler.  When 
he  is  not  asleep  or  in  the  saddle  he  is  always  engaged  at 
quaint  games  of  chance  that  are  his  own  invention,  and  are 
known  to  no  other  race  in  the  world.  He  is  peaceable  when 
sober,  but  a  reckless  dare-devil,  regardless  of  God  and  man. 


572 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


When  he  is  drunk  he  is  a  fiend  incarnate,  for  a  howling  sav¬ 
age  is  like  a  prattling  child  when  compared  to  a  drunken 
gaucho.  As  brave  as  a  lion,  as  active  as  a  panther,  with  an 
endurance  equal  to  any  test,  faithful  to  his  friends,  as  impla¬ 
cable  as  fate  to  any  one  who  offends  him,  he  has  exercised  a 
powerful  influence  upon  the  destiny  of  the  Argentine  Repub¬ 
lic,  and  kept  that  nation  back  in  civilization  until  his  influ¬ 
ence  was  overcome  by  an  increased  immigration  of  foreign¬ 
ers.  The  gaucho  has  never  taken  any  part  in  politics  except 
as  a  soldier,  and  as  such,  under  a  leader  that  he  will  obey,  he 
is  without  an  equal  in  either  civilized  or  savage  fighting. 

The  Argentinians  once  had  a  gaucho  Dictator,  Juan  Manuel 
de  Rosas,  who  ruled  the  country  with  a  despotism  of  iron  and 
blood  for  twenty-two  years  (from  1830  to  1852),  and  even  now 
is  seldom  referred  to  without  a  shudder,  for  the  marks  of 
his  cruel  hand  are  still  visible,  and  the  ancient  aristocracy 
still  feel  the  sting  of  blows  he  indicted  upon  them.  He  was 
the  son  of  a  wealthy  Spaniard  of  the  same  name,  who  exer¬ 
cised  a  patriarchal  sway  over  the  peons  that  looked  after  his 
flocks  and  herds ;  and  as  the  young  Rosas  grew  up,  the  old 
man  gradually  yielded  to  the  stronger  will  of  the  son,  until 
the  latter  became  a  sort  of  gaucho  leader,  and  commanded  a 
regiment  of  them  in  the  war  of  1S29  against  the  Indians.  So 
powerful  did  he  become  that  it  was  an  easy  step  from  the 
chieftainship  of  the  gauchos  to  the  control  of  the  Republic — 
a  self-appointed  Dictator,  the  head  of  an  absolute  despotism 
which  existed  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  in  defiance  of 
the  constitution  and  the  laws. 

Rosas  inherited  from  his  mother,  Donna  Augustine  Lopez  de 
Orsonis,  who  belonged  to  one  of  the  proudest  families  of  Spain, 
the  arrogance  and  stubbornness,  the  cruelty  and  craft  that 
marked  the  conquistadors.  He  maintained  his  power  by  the 
loyalty  of  the  gauchos,  of  whom  the  people  of  the  towns  lived 
in  terror.  With  an  inflexible  will,  with  the  cunning  of  a  fox  and 
the  courage  of  a  lion,  with  egregious  vanity  and  arrogance, 
and  a  perpetual  distrust  of  every  living  being  except  his  daugh¬ 
ter  Manuileta — the  only  person  to  whose  influence  he  ever  sub- 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


573 


mitted  or  for  whom  he  ever  showed  any  affection — he  ruled 
like  a  savage  chieftain  over  the  entire  southern  half  of  the 
continent,  from  Paraguay  to  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  relying 
solely  upon  the  terror  which  his  own  cruelty  and  that  of  his 
gaucho  lieutenants  had  inspired  among  the  people.  Blood 
flowed  by  his  command  as  freely  as  Avater,  and  the  extermi¬ 
nation  of  those  who  opposed  him  Avas  the  policy  under  which 


GENERAL  ROSAS. 


he  perpetuated  his  poAver.  No  citizen  of  the  Argentine  Re¬ 
public  or  Uruguay  felt  himself  safe.  No  man  went  to  bed  at 
night  Avith  any  confidence  that  he  would  be  alive  in  the  morn¬ 
ing  ;  for  neither  friendship,  relationship,  nor  even  obscurity, 
Avas  a  shield  from  assassination.  Rosas  only  ceased  to  mur- 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


574  _ _ _ 

der  when  the  great  fear  he  had  inspireil ^  paial 4  zed  the  P  P  ^ 

an(1  rendered  a  man  who  had 

neither  age  nor  ecv  E  and  was  supposed  to  be  his 

been  more  than  a  c  ,  ,  •  olt|  biood  by  the  via- 

confidential  "  "  ^  on  whom  he  reiied 

sorqueros,  the  se  ‘  -pho  0pHcial  history  of  Bue- 

to  execute  his  estimate  of  the  numbers  who 

nos  Ayres  give*  the loUowt  rf  the  tyrant  Rosas: 

died  through  the  ®p  sword,3765;  shot,  1393 ;  assas- 

poisoned,  4 ,  exetanec  v  number  slam  in 

sinated,  122  ;  otal  58W.  Addto  ^  1(yB0|  a„d 

the  constant  stiuge  e  t  victimS  to  the  ambition  of  a 

we  have  an  aggregate  ot  -  , 

gaucho  chief.  and  conceit  of  the  man  can  be 

to  Idea  ot  the  •  blurt  the  money  coined  during  h.s 
formed  from  the  tact  portrait  and  the  in- 

administration  'vb  But  he  was  not  eternal,  and  was 

^^^S^nboardthe~,a« 

English  man-oi-w  ai .  •  Immigration  and 

But  the  day  of  the  ^“J^freme  frontier,  where 
civilization  have  c  men  fmmd  in  his  fuu  glory.  Like  the 

nowadays  he  can  on  ;  ,  hen  domesticated,  and 

North  American  Indian,  he  <>^s  loafer.  and  a  thief. 
a  tame  gaucho  is  always  a  drunkard.  ^  ^  ^  lowers 

Civilization  saps  ins  vita  ,  ^  e)ement  be  wiU  „0t 

his  standard  ot  mom  .  he  becomes  a  resident  of 

steal  nor  do  a  mean  a  ,  his  malicious- 

a  town  he  will .rob  a dog,  W  M  ^  ^  ^  ^ 

ness.  Few  of  the  i«  ‘l  t]ie  estanciaro,  who  will  not 

at  the  present  day  he  le  1  for  turage.  So  the  gaucho 

r^eC-ioUg.  faster  fa^  to  ^  Z&ZTl 

ceT^r^  assume  more  of  the 


BUENOS  AYEES. 


575 


character  of  the  North  American  cow-boy.  Even  now,  in 
the  more  settled  portions  of  the  country,  the  word  gaucho 
has  become  a  word  of  reproach,  and  is  applied  to  worthless 
characters  who  live  by  cattle-stealing,  and  correspond  to  the 
rustlers  of  the  United  States. 

The  language  of  the  genuine  gaucho  is  a  mixture  of  Span¬ 
ish  and  the  Guarani  Indian  tongue,  and  his  food  is  beef  and 
yerba  mate.  At  every  rodeo ,  or  “  round  up,”  there  is  a  great 


PALERMO  A  ST.  BEINTE,  COUNTRY  RESIDENCE  OF  DON  JUAN  MANUEL  DE  ROSAS. 

feast,  at  which  many  good  things  are  set  forth ;  but  the  ordi¬ 
nary  diet  of  the  race  consists  of  ribs  of  beef  roasted  on  a 
spit  before  the  fire,  and  eaten  without  salt  or  bread,  while 
the  ordinary  drink  is  the  Paraguayan  tea,  which  is  sucked 
through  a  tube.  The  gaucho  lives  like  the  Indian — gorges 
himself  when  he  has  plenty  of  food,  or  goes  for  days  with¬ 
out  eating ;  but  he  always  has  his  mate  cup  with  him,  and  the 
yerba  contains  a  great  amount  of  nutrition.  He  usually  has 
a  habitation  in  a  hut  at  the  headquarters  of  the  estancia  upon 
which  he  is  employed,  and  there  he  keeps  his  family  and  goes 
on  feast-days,  for  he  is  enough  of  a  Catholic  to  keep  as  close 
a  reckoning  of  the  ecclesiastical  calendar  as  the  archbishop 
himself.  He  has* no  regard  for  the  Sabbath,  but  recognizes 
every  religious  anniversary  of  the  Church  by  leaving  his  cat¬ 
tle  on  the  range  and  going  to  headquarters,  where  he  spends 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


570 


the  d  in  p“£\£ 

feSfelays  never  end  without  a  murder, 

^“diXU  regalia  the  gaueho's  abearance 

phvSK,u„  -  I'^ut  chtf  The°gaueho  woman  is  said  to  be 
caneer  or  a  bandit  chi  •  ®  tv-five  or  thirty  she  is  a 

beautiful  when  young,  1  an(j  tangled  hair, 

dirty,  unkempt  slattern,  with  bleared .  eyes ,  mad  tan* 
and  wears  nothing  but  a  soiled  and  faded  ^ 

a  pair  of  brass  or  silver  Qf  jealousy>  but  when  she 

I  wife  or  a  mistress  she  is  kicked  about  the  camp, 

beaten,  and  abandoned  at  her  master  l  w  .  back 

ah  the  finery  in  the  family  goes  on  the  nusoauu 

and  saddle.  In  place  of  trousers  hewears  »  about 

concillas.  The  former  rs  a  square  pmce^ofcloth^  ^  ^  K 

the  thighs  and  fastener ““  J  which  the  rest  of  the  leg  is 

-n 

handsomely  and  gaudily  0™b™eet  are  incased  in  a  pair  of 
two  or  three  vnde  f  ,  0f  a  coit  rubbed 

iotas  (be  potro.  made  o  t  le  is  beels  are  decorated  with 

a  p°ttnd  °” 

Tfead  of  the  sombrero  "^hra-^ 
cavalier,  the  gaucho  wears  a  hat  t  1  ‘  “  baTe  cost 

commonly  known  as  a  Panama  k  But 

him  as  much  as  would  >j  ozen  ca  and  gambling 

in  his  saddle  lies  his  wealth,  for  all  '»»  a'  n=s  sifrer  oraa. 


BUENOS  AYKES. 


577 


of  savings-bank.  I  have  seen  saddles  worth  a  thousand  dol- 
lars,  with  solid  silver  stirrups,  pommels,  and  ornaments  weigh¬ 
ing  as  much  as  a  man.  A  pair  of  silver  spurs  are  worth  any¬ 
where  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars,  according  to  their 
size  and  the  workmanship  upon  them.  Stirrups  of  solid  sil¬ 
ver,  made  in  the  form  of  a  heelless  slipper,  are  very  common, 
and  the  belles  of  the  cities  of  the  Argentine  Republic  con¬ 
sider  them  essential  to  a  riding  costume.  Stirrups  are  often 
made  of  brass,  and  when  highly  polished  add  a  unique  feat¬ 
ure  to  the  accoutrements  of  an  Argentine  Caballero.  His  belt 
is  usually  covered  with  a  string  of  silver  dollars,  and  all  his 
buttons  are  of  silver. 

The  Argentine  poncho  is  a  great  institution,  and  if  some 
fashionable  swell  in  Hew  York  would  set  the  style  by  wear¬ 
ing  one,  it  would  add  greatly  to  the  comfort  of  our  people,  as 
well  as  to  their  convenience.  There  never  was  a  garment 
better  adapted  for  out-of-door  use,  and  particularly  for  plains¬ 
men  or  those  who  are  much  in  the  saddle.  It  is  a  blanket  of 
ordinary  size,  with  a  slit  in  the  centre  through  which  the  head 
goes.  It  rests  upon  the  shoulders,  and  its  folds  hang  down 
as  far  as  the  knee,  allowing  free  use  of  the  arms,  but  always 
furnishing  them  and  the  rest  of  the  body  with  protection. 
In  summer  it  shields  the  wearer  from  the  heat  of  the  sum 
while  in  winter  it  is  as  warm  as  an  ulster,  and  in  rainy  days 
takes  the  place  of  an  umbrella.  The  native  is  never  with¬ 
out  it,  summer  or  winter,  afoot  or  on  horseback,  at  home  or 
abroad.  It  stays  by  him  like  his  shadow,  and  serves  him  as 
an  overcoat  by  day  and  as  a  blanket  by  night. 

Ponchos  were  formerly  made  of  the  hair  of  the  vicuna,  an 
animal  which  is  a  sort  of  cross  between  the  camel  and  the 
antelope,  and  is  found  in  the  Bolivian  Andes.  Before  the  Con¬ 
quest  vicuna  skin  was  the  royal  ermine  of  the  Incas,  and  none 
but  persons  of  princely  blood  were  allowed  to  wear  it.  A 
vicuna  poncho  is  as  soft  as  velvet,  and  as  durable  as  steel. 
You  can  find  plenty  of  them  in  the  Argentine  Republic  and 
in  Chili  that  have  been,  like  grandfather’s  clock,  in  the  old 
families  for  two  centuries  or  more,  and  have  been  handed 
37 


578 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


down  with  the  family  jewels  as  heirlooms.  They  never  wear 
out,  and,  like  lace,  improve  with  age.  But  genuine  vicuna 
ponchos  are  hard  to  get,  and  very  expensive,  costing  often 
as  much  as  a  camel’s-hair  shawl,  as  the  animal  is  becoming 
scarce.  The  color  is  a  delicate  fawn,  and  will  not  change 
when  wet,  which  is  a  sure  test  of  its  genuineness.  Most  of 
the  line  ponchos  worn  nowadays  are  made  of  lamb’s -wool 
in  Manchester,  England,  and  cannot  be  distinguished  from 
vicuna  except  by  experts ;  but  tons  after  tons  of  a  common 
sort,  made  of  cotton  and  wool,  of  gaudy  colors,  are  now  im¬ 
ported  annually,  and  answer  the  purpose  of  the  gaucho  just 
as  well,  while  the  bright  tints  please  his  taste  better. 

The  gaucho  always  carries  tobacco,  cigarette  paper,  flint, 
and  steel.  He  is  an  inveterate  smoker,  but  coniines  himself 
to  ^cigarettes,  which  he  rolls  at  full  gallop.  lie  does  every¬ 
thing  on  horseback,  when  he  chooses — eats  and  sleeps,  catch¬ 
es  fish,  carries  water  from  the  well  in  a  pitcher  or  urn  on 
his  head,  and  even  attends  mass  on  horseback — at  least,  the 
nearest  he  ever  gets  to  the  altar  is  to  ride  up  to  the  door  of 
a  church  and  sit  in  the  saddle  while  the  service  is  being  cel¬ 
ebrated. 

A  gaucho  child  is  put  into  the  saddle  at  as  early  an  age 
as  an  American  child  is  put  into  breeches.  "When  he  is 
eight  or  ten  years  old  he  will  ride  anything  less  than  a  tor¬ 
nado  ;  and  after  he  reaches  his  growth,  if  he  is  thrown  from 
a  horse  he  is  disgraced  forever;  nothing  he  can  do  will  re¬ 
cover  for  him  the  respect  of  the  community.  He  is  an  ostra¬ 
cized  and  despised  creature,  as  hopelessly  lost  as  a  fallen 
star. 

The  animals  the  gauchos  ride  are  splendid  native  stallions, 
as  swift  as  the  wind  and  as  enduring  as  time.  Fifty  or  sixty 
miles  a  day  is  a  gentle  jaunt,  for  a  well-bred  pampa  horse 
will  gallop  from  sunrise  to  sunset  without  throwing  a  fleck  of 
foam.  During  the  recent  war  against  the  Patagonian  Indians 
a  craucho  courier  made  six  hundred  miles  in  forty-eight  hours 
with  only  four  changes  of  horses. 

One  of  the  sports  of  the  gauchos  is  “  breakiug  horses,”  cruel 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


579 


and  dangerous,  like  all  their  amusements.  Two  gauchos 
mount,  and  taking  positions  forty  or  fifty  yards  apart,  at  a 
given  signal  start  at  a  full  run  and  come  together  breast  to 
breast,  like  two  battering-rams,  with  a  shock  that  often  kills 
the  animals,  and  nearly  always  unseats  one  or  both  of  the  rid¬ 
ers.  Another  is  called  “  crowding  horses.”  Two  mounted  gau¬ 
chos  place  their  stallions  side  by  side,  and  crowd  them  against 
each  other  to  see  which  will  yield.  A  third  game  is  to  place 
across  the  entrance  to  a  corral  or  other  enclosure  a  bar  about 
as  high  as  a  horse’s  head.  The  gaucho  mounts,  retires  to  a 
distance  of  forty  rods  or  so,  rushes  to  the  entrance  at  full  gal¬ 
lop*  and,  without  checking  the  speed  of  his  horse,  leaps  out 
of  the  saddle  when  the  bar  is  reached,  throws  himself  under 
it,  and  regains  his  seat,  passing  under  the  bar  without  touch¬ 
ing  the  ground. 

The  skill  with  which  the  gaucho  handles  the  lasso  is  an 
everlasting  source  of  wonder.  While  at  full  gallop  he  can 
throw  a  coil  of  raw-hide  with  as  much  accuracy  as  an  expert 
rifleman  can  crack  a  glass  ball,  and  will  catch  a  running  cow 
or  sheep  or  hog,  lassoing  the  horn  or  foot  or  head  at  will. 
Duels  with  the  lasso  are  often  fought,  the  contestants  throw¬ 
ing  nooses  at  the  heads  of  each  other,  sparring  and  dodging 
like  pugilists,  until  one  or  the  other  is  caught  and  dragged 
out  of  the  saddle.  If  the  duel  is  an  earnest  one,  as  often  oc¬ 
curs,  and  the  gauchos  are  determined,  the  man  who  is  caught 
is  often  dragged,  with  a  noose  around  his  neck,  behind  a  gal¬ 
loping  horse  until  the  life  is  choked  and  pounded  out  of  his 
body. 

The  Argentine  Republic  will  some  day  become  a  formida¬ 
ble  rival  of  the  United  States.  It  has  vast  natural  resources 
similar  to  ours,  and  is  developing  them  rapidly.  It  has  a  mag¬ 
nificent  fluvial  system  like  that  of  the  Mississippi,  fertile  plains 
like  those  of  Illinois  and  Iowa,  boundless  pampas  stretching 
for  twelve  hundred  miles  to  the  mountains,  and  affording 
pasturage  for  millions  of  cattle,  horses,  and  sheep,  like  the 
prairies  of  Kansas,  Colorado,  Nebraska,  and  New  Mexico. 
Towards  the  north,  into  Paraguay,  which,  although  an  inde- 


580 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


pendent 
State, is 
a  tribu¬ 
tary  to 
the  Ar¬ 
gentine 
Repub¬ 
lic,  are 
lands  that  will  pro¬ 
duce  sugar,  cotton, 
rice,  and  other  semi- 
tropical  staples  like 
those  of  our  own  sun¬ 
ny  South.  There  is 
also  an  almost  unlim¬ 
ited  supply  of  timber, 
hard  and  soft  woods,  easy 
of  access,  within  reach  of 
mighty  streams  ;  and  the  for¬ 
ests  are  greater  than  man 
knows,  for  they  have  never 
been  measured.  The  latitude 
of  the  Argentine  Republic 


MAP  OF  THE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC. 


BUENOS  AYRES.  581 

- - - - — - - *- - - 

corresponds  with  that  of  the  United  States ;  its  climate  is 
similar  to  that  of  our  great  West,  and  the  people  have  an 
activity,  an.  enterprise,  and  a  patriotism  that  remind  the  North 
American  of  home. 

Where  rivers  do  not  run  the  people  are  pushing  railroads, 
and  in  a  few  years  they  will  have  a  railway  system  second 
only  to  that  of  the  United  States.  They  are  offering  tempt¬ 
ing  inducements  to  settlers,  and  immigration  is  very  large. 
The  increase  in  population  during  the  last  fifteen  years  was 
one  hundred  and  fifty-four  per  cent.,  while  that  of  the  United 
States  was  seventy-nine  per  cent.  From  Germany,  Norway, 
and  Switzerland,  but  especially  from  Italy,  come  ship -loads 
of  hardy,  thrifty,  industrious  men  every  week,  and  the  passen¬ 
ger  mole  at  Buenos  Ayres  resembles  Castle  Garden.  The  Gov¬ 
ernment  aids  and  encourages  immigration  more  than  does 
ours.  The  immigrant  vessel  that  arrives  at  New  York  is  re¬ 
quired  to  pay  “  head-money  ”  on  every  passenger  it  brings. 
At  Buenos  Ayres  the  vessel  receives  “  head-money  ”  from  the 
Government  as  an  inducement  to  bring  passengers.  The 
fare  from  Europe  to  the  river  Plate,  or  the  Rio  Plata,  that 
great  stream  which  divides  the  continent,  is  about  the  same 
as  to  the  United  States ;  and  although  I  do  not  believe  that 
the  class  of  immigrants  which  arrives  there  is  equal  in  intel¬ 
ligence  and  the  other  qualities  that  constitute  good  citizens 
to  that  which  comes  to  the  United  States,  every  family  ar¬ 
riving  means  so  many  more  acres  developed  and  an  increase 
of  population.  They  do  not  at  once  become  citizens,  as  in 
this  country.  This  is  particularly  the  case  with  the  Italians, 
who  seldom  take  out  naturalization  papers.  Foreigners  are 
allowed  to  vote  at  municipal  elections,  and  therefore  the 
temptation  to  citizenship  is  not  so  strong;  but  nevertheless 
they  go  to  make  up  the  body  politic,  and  as  they  are  ex¬ 
empt  from  military  service,  the  country  is  always  sure  of 
having  its  fields  tilled  and  its  crops  gathered,  whether  there 
is  a  war  or  not. 

In  1882,  51,503  immigrants  arrived  at  Buenos  Ayres  from 
Europe;  in  1883  the  number  increased  to  63,242;  in  1884,  to 


5S2 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


92,700  ;  in  1887,  to  138,000 ;  in  1888,  to  141,892.  In  1888  it 
was  estimated  that  756,000  foreigners  had  settled  in  the  coun¬ 
try  during  the  preceding  ten  years,  and  the  population  of  the 
city  of  Buenos  Ayres  has  increased  nearly  300,000  since  1872. 

The  greater  portion  of  these  immigrants  are  Italians,  who 
go  directly  into  the  agricultural  regions,  take  up  land,  and 
cultivate  small  but  increasing  farms.  Some  are  Germans 
and  Scandinavians,  but  more  are  F rench.  The  latter  usually 
settle  in  the  cities,  and  become  small  tradesmen  or  servants. 
Large  numbers  of  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  capitalists  are 
securing  estancias,  and  raising  sheep  and  cattle  upon  a  large 
scale.  It  is  estimated  that  forty -two  million  dollars  have 
been  invested  in  this  way  from  1882  to  1887,  and  one  Eng¬ 
lishman  alone  has  expended  a  million.  The  usual  plan,  as 
in  the  United  States,  is  to  organize  companies,  with  head¬ 
quarters  in  London,  Glasgow,  and  other  large  cities,  and  send 
out  capable  superintendents.  The  cattle  interests  of  the 
Argentine  Republic,  like  those  in  our  country,  will  ultimately 
be  controlled  by  a  few  large  corporations. 

The  colonization  plan  is  popular  there,  and  so  far  quite  suc¬ 
cessful.  Within  the  last  five  years  1,126,000  acres  of  land 
have  been  taken  up  by  colonies,  representing  a  population  of 
82,000  souls,  mostly  Italians  and  Swiss.  The  English  and 
German  immigrants  will  not  colonize.  The  railroad  develop¬ 
ment  of  the  country  is  very  rapid,  and  lines  are  now  being 
constructed  in  various  directions  from  Buenos  Ayres  and 
other  commercial  centres. 

The  result  of  the  internal  improvements  made  under  this 
policy  is  plain  to  be  seen.  Within  the  last  five  years  the 
cattle  have  been  driven  back  gradually  upon  the  pampas, 
towns  have  sprung  up,  and  farms  have  been  opened  in  terri¬ 
tory  that  was  inaccessible  before  the  railroad  improvements 
began.  There  is  a  natural  tendency  to  overbuild,  as  has  been 
the  case  in  this  country;  but  so  far  only  the  needs  of  the 
present  have  been  met,  and  the  roads  have  become  at  once 
self-sustaining.  The  prospective  roads,  however,  are  very  nu¬ 
merous,  and  concessions  for  thousands  of  miles  have  already 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


583  . 


been  granted  on  the  most  liberal  terms.  Two  of  these  con¬ 
cessions  are  held  by  citizens  of  the  United  States. 

Five  years  ago  the  Argentine  Republic  was  importing 
wheat  and  flour  from  Chili  and  the  United  States,  and  Uru¬ 
guay  only  raised  enough  for  her  own  consumption.  The 
wheat  crop  of  Uruguay  in  1878  was  2,000,000  bushels;  in 
1880,  2,600,000  bushels ;  in  1882,  3,000,000  bushels ;  in  1886, 
9,000,000  bushels ;  and  the  increase  in  the  com  product  was 
equally  rapid.  In  1854  only  375,000  acres  were  under  culti¬ 
vation  in  the  Argentine  Republic ;  in  1864  the  cultivated 
area  was  506,000  acres;  in  1874  it  was  825,000  acres.  In 
1879  the  boom  commenced,  and  in  1887  there  were  6,200,000 
acres  under  cultivation — an  increase  of  5,375,000  acres  in  13 
years.  In  1874  there  were  271,000  acres  in  wheat;  in  1884, 
1,717,000  acres — an  increase  of  533  per  cent.  In  1874  there 
were  554,000  acres  in  other  crops ;  in  1884  the  area  jumped 
to  2,543,000  acres — an  increase  of  360  per  cent.  The  average 
yield  of  wheat  throughout  the  republic  in  1884  was  eight 
and  one-half  bushels  to  the  acre,  and  the  total  crop  was  near¬ 
ly  eleven  million  bushels.  It  was  in  1880  that  the  importa¬ 
tion  of  wheat  ceased,  the  amount  purchased  of  Chili  that  year 
being  11,330  bushels.  It  is  estimated  that  the  area  in  wheat 
in  1889  is  as  large  as  6,500,000  acres,  but  no  official  returns 
have  been  received. 

Wheat  and  flour  are  not  the  only  agricultural  products 
exported  by  the  Argentine  Republic.  In  1887  the  exports 
of  Indian  corn  were  $7,236,886 ;  of  barley,  14,194  tons ;  of 
baled  hay,  12,560,000  kilograms ;  of  linseed,  $4,060,000 ;  of 
peanuts,  3367  tons ;  of  wheat,  $9,514,000 ;  and  of  flour, 
$378,076.  The  production  of  sugar  is  becoming  a  very  im¬ 
portant  industry,  and  is  now  almost  sufficient  to  supply  the 
domestic  demand,  the  yield  last  year  amounting  to  nearly 
50,000,000  pounds.  The  increased  area  under  cultivation  and 
the  improved  methods  of  reducing  the  cane  will  soon  make 
sugar  an  article  of  export.  There  are  a  number  of  Cuban 
exiles  in  the  northern  provinces  and  in  Paraguay  cultivating 
sugar  and  tobacco  on  the  Cuban  system  with  marked  success. 


584 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


It  is  estimated  that  the  extent  of  agricultural  land  in  the 
Argentine  Republic  equals  six  hundred  thousand  square  miles 
— an  area  equal  to  Louisiana,  Mississippi,  Alabama,  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  Arkansas,  Kentucky,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Ohio,  Mis¬ 
souri,  Iowa,  and  Wisconsin,  and  capable  of  producing  every 
crop  in  those  States ;  and  if  the  increase  of  population  con¬ 
tinues  at  its  present  rate  they  will  hold  a  population  of  seven 
millions  by  the  close  of  the  century.  The  market  which 


COUNTRY  SCENE  IN  TIIE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC. 


we  shall  first  lose  by  Argentine  competition  in  bread-stuffs 
will  be  Brazil,  where  we  now  sell  about  85,000,000  worth  of 
flour  annually.  The  Argentine  Republic  will  also  become 
our  rival  in  the  West  India  trade,  which  now  absorbs  most 
of  its  meat  product ;  and  we  will  soon  feel  the  effect  of  the 
cheapness  of  Argentine  products  in  the  European  market, 
where  considerable  beef,  mutton,  and  grain,  is  now  sent  in 
exchange  for  manufactured  merchandise.  But  in  pork,  lard, 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


585 


and  dairy  products  the  Argentinians  cannot  compete  with  us. 
The  country  does  not  seem  to  be  adapted  to  hog-raising,  and 
while  there  is  always  fresh  pork  to  be  had,  the  supply  of 
bacon,  hams,  and  lard  is  included  in  the  imports.  Nearly 
all  the  cured  pork  comes  from  the  United  States,  but  most 
of  the  hams  and  bacons  are  disguised  under  English  trade¬ 
marks.  The  merchants  here  say  that  American  packers  do 
not  prepare  their  meats  in  a  proper  way  to  get  this  market, 
and  that  our  cured  pork  first  goes  to  England,  and  there 
receives  some  treatment  and  a  particular  style  of  wrapping 
which  make  it  salable  in  the  River  Plate  country.  There 
is  some  native  butter  made,  but  none  is  exported,  the  climate 
not  being  suitable  to  the  dairy  business.  Most  of  the  import¬ 
ed  butter,  as  well  as  the  cheese,  comes  from  Holland  and  Co¬ 
penhagen.  The  butter  is  packed  in  one-pound  tins,  hermet¬ 
ically  sealed,  and  will  keep  any  length  of  time  if  properly 
handled.  There  is  no  American  butter  or  cheese  to  be  had 
there* not  even  oleomargarine,  an  article  that  is  unknown  to 
the  people.  A  comparatively  small  amount  of  lard  and  but¬ 
ter  is  consumed,  however,  as  oil  is  commonly  used  for  cooking. 
Most  of  the  cooks  are  French  and  Italian,  in  both  private 
and  public  houses,  and  use  the  same  methods  they  were  ac¬ 
customed  to  in  their  respective  countries. 

The  wool  product  of  the  Argentine  Republic  is  not  so 
valuable  as  that  of  Australia,  although  larger,  because  it  is 
coarser,  and  contains  a  much  greater  percentage  of  dirt  and 
grease.  The  people  complain  that  our  duty  on  wool,  being 
levied  by  weight,  is  an  unjust  discrimination  against  their 
product,  and  in  favor  of  the  product  of  Australia,  which 
is  true.  The  only  shipments  to  this  country  are  of  the 
coarser  varieties,  to  be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  carpets, 
and  we  take  annually  about  a  million  dollars’  worth.  The 
great  bulk  of  the  product  goes  to  Belgium,  and  is  consumed  in 
the  Brussels  carpet  mills,  the  export  to  that  country  in  1883 
amounting  to  $12,148,000.  Some  attempt  is  being  made  to 
improve  the  quality  of  the  wool  by  grading  up  the  flocks  with 
imported  bucks,  but  the  judgment  of  the  sheep-growers  is 


5S6 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


generally  against  it,  as  the  present  quality  is  in  demand  for 

carnet  manufacture.  „ 

The  sheepskins  go  to  Germany  and  France  hut  many  of 
the  hides  come  to  the  United  States,  being  our  largest  item  of 
import  from  the  Argentine  Republic.  The  same  objection 
that  is  made  to  improving  the  sheep  is  made  against  the 
provement  of  the  breeds  of  cattle,  as  the  native  hides  are 
heavier,  and  command  a  better  price  than  the  Duihams,  lie 
fords,  and  Jerseys  that  have  been  introduced.  The  imported 
breeds  yield  a  better  quality  of  beef,  but  a  less  valuable  hide, 
leaving  the  profit  from  the  animal  about  the  same  The  num¬ 
ber  of  hides  exported  in  18S5  was  less  than  usual,  because  of 
the  demand  for  stock  for  new  ranches ;  and  the  amount  o 
ierked  beef  was  smaller. 

This  ierked  beef  is  the  flesh  of  the  animal  cut  into  th  n 
strips  and  dried  in  the  sun,  a  weak  brine  being  commonly 
used  to  hasten  evaporation  and  arrest  decay.  It  is  packed  m 
laro-e  bales,  and  sent  to  Brazil  and  the  West  Indies,  where 
is  the  staple  food  of  the  slaves  and  the  laboring  classes.  A  e 
have  noting  to  compare  with  it  in  the  United  States  except 
the  jerked  buffalo  meat  of  the  Indians,  which  is  prepared  m  a 
similar  manner.  Of  this  product  $1,710,000  worth  was  seat 
to  Brazil  in  1885,  and  §1,113,000  worth  to  Cuba. 

Ko  attempt  has  ever  been  made  by  our  beef-producers  to 
compete  with  the  Argentine  Eepublic  and  Uruguay-the  only 
exporters' of  jerked  beef-and  it  would  undoubtedly  be  diffi¬ 
cult  for  them  to  do  so,  as  the  cost  of  the  cattle  |s  so  much 
.neater  in  this  country.  Their  transportation  facilities  to  the 
West  Indies  are  better  than  ours,  notwithstanding  the  di  e  - 
encf  in  distance,  and  a  steamer  leaves 
Brazilian  ports  every  day.  7  anous  endear 
ierked  beef  into  Europe  have  proved  unsuccessful,  but  the  at 
tempt  has  not  been  abandoned.  Samples  »*»  1  ™ 

more  than  ordinary  care,  and  the  article  is  sold  foi  five 
a  wound,  but  it  does  not  seem  to  be  popular. 

The  Argentinians  are  beginning  to  ship  arge  quan  1 
fresh  beef  to  Europe  in  refrigerator  ships,  one  or  more  *  0 


BUENOS  AYKES. 


587 


Buenos  Ayres  every  week,  and  the  new  steamers  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish  and  French  lines  contain  compartments  built  especially 
for  this  purpose.  They  do  not  use  ice,  but  have  a  cooling  pro¬ 
cess  similar  to  that  adopted  on  transatlantic  steamers.  Com- 


••  '  'Afr 


■■I  llilMliliii!  i  I  !  '  •y-;','';. 

JUAREZ  CELMAN — PRESIDENT  OF  THE  ARGENTINE  REPUBLIC. 


panies  are  already  formed  to  slaughter  and  ship  beef  in  this 
way,  and  the  business  is  growing  so  rapidly  that  it  will  soon 
be  felt  by  our  exporters.  The  whole  carcass  is  shipped,  and 


58S 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


only  choice  beef  is  selected.  They  cannot  now  compete  w  th 
us  in  quality,  but  their  cattle  are  so  much  cheaper,  and  aie 
beino-  graded  up  by  the  introduction  ot  improved  stock  from 
Eno-fand.  Their  cattle  are  not  sold  by  weight  but  by  the 
head  being  graded  according  to  size  and  condition  prime 
steers  bringing  only  fourteen  or  fifteen  dollars  the  next  qual¬ 
ity  twelve  dollars,  and  the  poorest  ones  ten  dollars  per  head 
AVitliin  a  radius  of  fifty  miles  from  Buenos  Ayres  are  ranches 
la^er  than  any  in  Texas,  and  cattle  can  be  driven  almost  on 
the  steamers  in  the  harbor,  so  that  the  cost  of  transportation 
and  shrinkage  is  merely  nominal,  while  our  ranches  are  from 
two  to  four  thousand  miles  from  the  sea. 

Fat  steers  can  be  set  down  at  the  slaughter-houses,  not  fifty 
miles  from  the  harbor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  at  a  maximum  puce 
of  fifteen  dollars  a  head,  and  they  are  high  nowJ^®  “ 
the  demand  for  cattle  to  stock  new  ranches.  The  CObt  ° 
transportation  from  the  ranches  in  the  Argentine  Republic 
rS  Garden  market  in  London  is 
often  less  than  from  Kansas  City  to  New  \ oik,  so  that  our 
producers  in  addition  to  the  difference  in  the  price  of  beef, 
S  l^eke  freight  from  New  York  to  Liverpool  aga.net 

“'sheep  are  also  killed  and  frozen  for  exportation  to  W 
•i  single  salrlero  or  slaughter-house,  at  Campana,  . 
from  Buenos  Ayres,  shipping  five  hundred  carcasses  daily. 
TI.ev  are  hum'  for  an  hour  after  killing,  and  then  removed  t 
S.:  where  the  temperature  is  slightly  above  the 

freezing-point ;  from  this  they  are  taken  to  a 
bov  where  they  are  left  until  as  hard  as  stone.  Then  the} 
packed  ia  canvas  bags,  and  sent  to  the  steamer  •  in  refnge rato 
‘  T  ive  sheep  in  condition  for  killing  are  woitli  only  tnree 
“  Lr  doUa./for  the  best  quality  and  orchnary w 
sold  in  the  city  market  for  seven  cents  a  pound.  In  L  ■ 
exported  ninety  million  pounds  of  dressed  beef.  In  1-  *  ‘ 
to  .1  had  been'  nearly  doubled,  with  a  fair  prospect  of  contn  - 
total  nan  men  Argentine  Republic  exported  36,- 

081  25 s'  kilograms^  of  dressed  beef,  with  an  increase  quite  as 


BUENOS  AYRES. 


589 


rapid  as  ours.  In  1884  there  were  49,000,000  head  of  cattle 
in  the  United  States,  and  30,000,000  in  the  Argentine  Repub¬ 
lic.  The  single  province  of  Buenos  Ayres  has  just  twice 
as  many  cattle  as  Texas,  and  as  many  as  Texas  and  all  the 
territories  of  the  United  States  combined.  Then  across  the 
River  Plata  is  the  little  republic  of  Uruguay,  about  as  large 
as  Iowa,  with  500,000  people  and  8,000,000  cattle,  and  pre¬ 
senting  about  the  same  ratio  of  increase. 

The  cattlemen  of  the  Argentine  Republic  and  Uruguay  are 
going  into  the  business  of  canning  meats,  and  will  soon  com¬ 
pete  with  us  in  that  line.  It  is  not  generally  known  that  Lie¬ 
big’s  extract  of  beef,  so  largely  used  in  hospitals  as  a  tonic,  is 
made  in  Uruguay,  for  the  jars  in  which  the  tonic  reaches  the 
market  bear  trade-marks  to  make  it  appear  to  come  from 
England.  The  extract  was  invented  by  Ur.  Liebig,  the  cele¬ 
brated  chemist,  nearly  half  a  century  ago,  but  its  process 
passed  into  the  hands  of  an  English  company  in  1866,  which 
then  removed  the  establishment  from  Antwerp  to  Fray  Ben¬ 
tos,  Uruguay.  This  company  is  now  erecting  buildings  for 
the  purpose  of  canning  meats,  and  have  Chicago  men  in 
charge  of  the  work. 

Although  horses  are  very  cheap,  there  is  a  good  deal  of 
profit  in  raising  them,  and  the  stock  is  being  improved  very 
rapidly  by  the  introduction  of  thorough-bred  English  stallions. 
The  native  Argentine  horse  is  almost  the  counterpart  of  the 
North  American  broncho,  tough,  swift,  and  enduring,  and 
when  crossed  with  better  blood  loses  none  of  his  good  quali¬ 
ties,  but  improves  in  size  and  appearance.  They  are  usually 
kept  in  droves  of  five  hundred,  and  run  wild  the  year  round, 
the  stallions  being  turned  loose  among  them  at  the  proper 
season — about  one  to  twenty  mares.  When  the  colts  are  two 
years  old  they  are  taken  from  the  drove  and  kept  separate 
until  three  or  four  years  old,  when  the  fillies  are  turned  back 
with  the  mares,  and  the  stallions  broken  for  service.  Mares 
are  never  broken,  but  run  wild  on  the  range  from  the  time 
they  are  foaled  until  they  are  driven  to  the  saldero  at  the 
age  of  twelve  or  fifteen  years.  A  three  -  year  -  old  mare  is 


590 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


worth  seven  or  eight  dollars  for  breeding  purposes— not  as 
ranch  as  a  heifer- while  a  fifteen-year-old  brings  three  or  four 
dollars  at  the  saldero.  Her  hide  is  shipped  to  Europe,  her 
bones  turned  into  bone  ash,  and  her  hoofs  sent  to  the  glue 

factory. 

The"  best  kind  of  an  improved  saddle-horse,  such  as  would 
brino-  two  hundred  and  fifty  or  three  hundred  dollars  in  the 
States,  can  be  bought  in  the  Argentine  Republic  for  seventy- 
five  dollars,  fine  carriage  -  horses  for  fifty  dollars  each,  anc 
work-horses  for  twenty  or  twenty-five  dollars.  The  street¬ 
car  companies  pay  about  ten  dollars  a  head  for  their  stock. 
Everybody  rides;  even  the  old  adage  about  a  beggar  on  horse¬ 
back  is  realized  there. 


Note  to  Second  EomoN.-Since  the  publication  of  a  portion  of  this 
Chapter  h.  Harper’s  New  Monthly  Magazine,  and  especially  since  this  volume 
originally  issued,  the  author  has  beqn  addressed  by  several  hundred  per¬ 
sons  who  desired  additional  information  concerning  the  Argentine  pepublic_ 
The  Argentine  Minister  at  Washington  and  the  Consul-general  at  New  \o 
have  also  been  overwhelmed  with  similar  inquiries.  In  order  that  Hj™ 
be  fully  and  accurately  answered,  the  Argentine  Government  has  establish^ 
a  Bu  eau  of  Information  and  Emigration  at  160  Fulton  Street  New  York 
Ci  v  under  the  charge  of  J.  A.  King,  Esq.  But  the  author  would  commend 
“V,  inquirer,  the  advice  given  by  Mr.  E.  L.  Baker,  linked  State* iCo-su  W, 
Buenos  Avrcs  in  a  recent  communication  to  the  Slate  Hepartmc  .  -  • 

keT^a  gentleman  of  rare  judgment,  and  has  resided  at  Buenos  Ayres  since 
rt,  Hc  says-  ••  I  may.  however,  say  to  this  category  of  letter-writers  that, 
except  in  some  few  special  cases,  the  first  prerequisite  for  obtaining  business 
employment  here  is  a  knowledge  of  the  Spanish  language.  It  is  the  medium 
for  all  transactions  and  interchanges  of  thought,  and  it  is  abso  u  .  e ‘i 7 
thrown  away  to  venture  here  without  such  knowledge.  And  I  may  add  that 
if  auv  Americans,  under  this  restriction,  persist  in  coming  down  here  in 

cheap'  thoroughly^  press  them  with 

the  blessings  they  have  left  behind  them. 


MONTEVIDEO. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  URUGUAY. 

Soon  after  General  Garfield  became  President,  an  ex-mem¬ 
ber  of  Congress,  since  the  governor  of  a  western  State,  came 
into  a  correspondent’s  office  in  Washington,  and  sitting  down 
with  a  discouraged  and  disgusted  air,  asked,  “  Where  in  To- 


THE  CITY  OF  MONTEVIDEO,  LOOKING  TOWARDS  THE  HARBOR. 


phet  is  Uruguay?  I  have  been  offered  the  honor  of  repre¬ 
senting  the  United  States  in  that  country,  and  before  I  accept 
I  would  like  to  find  out  where  it  is.” 

Not  three  out  of  four  men  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 


592 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


States  could  have  answered  the  question  correctly ;  and  it 
the  embryonic  diplomatist  had  entered  into  an  inquiry  abou 
the  resources  of  'the  country,  and  the  number  and  chapter 
of  the  people,  he  could  not  have  found  a  man  in  our  Isationa 
Legislature,  on  the  Supreme  Bench,  or  in  the  Cabinet  who 
could  have  given  him  the  information  correctly,  and  he  might 
have  sought  in  vain  for  it  in  our  modern  school  geographies. 
Yet  Uruguay  is  one  of  the  most  enterprising,  prqgressrye^an 
prosper'  >us  nations  on  this  hemisphere  g-o'™g  faster  ™  1- 
portion  to  its  area  and  population  than  the  United  Sta  , 
lad  is  beginning  to  be  a  formidable  competitor  of  ours  m 

the  provision  markets  of  Europe.  • 

The  country  which  appears  on  the  map  hs  Uruguay  is 
known  in  South  America  as  “the  Banda  Oriental, 
strong  accent  upon  the  last  syllable,  which,  being ,  interpre t  d 
means  “the  Eastern  Strip,”  as  it  was  once  a  part  of  the  Ai 
o-entine  Republic,  which  in  those  days  was  krnrnn  as  tlie 
Banda  Occidental.”  Uruguay  is  the  old  Indian  name,  anc 
the  legal  one,  being  recognized  by  the  Constitution, 
inhabitants  are  known  as  “Orientals,”  with  a  strong  accent 
on  the  “  tals.”  Uruguay  is  the  smallest  independent  date  in 
South  America,  andln  its  agricultural  and  1—  “ 
the  richest,  with  undiscovered  possibilities  in  the  mm* 
way  In  the  good  old  colony  times  the  \  iceroy  of  Sp a 
and  the  Jesuits  used  to  get  a  great  deal  of  gold mud  si h  a 
nlaoer  washings— from  the  interior  of  Uruguay,  but  dm  g 
the  lorn'  struggle  for  independence,  and  the  sixty  reals 
revolution  ^followed,  the  operation  of  the =s ™ 
minded  and  their  localities  forgotten  or  obliterated  by  me 
people  who  were  mercilessly  robbed  of  the  wealth  they  ga 
SKSt  way.  They  found  it  economical  to  do  nothing 
for  as  fast  as  they  accumulated  a  few  doUars  they  eie 
robbed  of  it,  and  those  who  were  suspected  of Jcnowin g .wh^e. 
the  gold  and  silver  came  from  were  persecute  . 

disclosed  the  secret,  or  else  died  with  it  concealed  in  the 

'"So  country  ever  suffered  more  from  war  than  Uruguay,  as 


MONTEVIDEO. 


593 


for  almost  a  hundred  years  a  struggle  of  arms,  under  one  ex¬ 
cuse  or  another,  has  been  going  on  within  her  borders,  and 
until  the  present  despotism— which  makes  only  a  mask  of  the 
nominal  democracy  it  pretends — came  into  power,  there  was 
a  change  of  government,  or  an  attempt  to  secure  one,  under 
almost  every  new  moon.  Although  Uruguay  is  as  much  of 
an  absolute  monarchy  to-day  as  exists  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  her  people  have  peace  and  prosperity,  her  development 
is  being  hastened  by  large  works  of  internal  improvement, 


HARBOR  OP  MONTEVIDEO. 


her  population  is  increasing  rapidly,  her  commerce  is  as¬ 
suming  immense  proportions,  and  she  is  making  more  rapid 
strides  towards  greatness  than  any  other  country  in  South 
America,  except  her  neighbor  across  the  River  Plate.  With 
a  republican  form  of  government  guaranteed  by  the  consti¬ 
tution,  with  civil  and  religious  freedom  as  the  foundation- 
stone  of  the  nation,  the  will  of  the  President  has  been  usually 
as  absolute  as  was  that  of  the  ex-King  Thebaw. 

Maximo  Santos,  who  was  for  many  years  to  Uruguay  what 
38 


59A 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


Guzman  Blanco  has  been  to  Venezuela,  and  Rufino  Barrios 
to  Gautemala— its  nominal  President,  but  its  de  facto  dicta¬ 
tor — was  a  man  of  immense  energy,  broad  views,  and  an  am¬ 
bition  to  lift  his  nation  to  the  standard  of  modern  civilization. 
Although  an  autocrat,  to  a  certain  degree  he  was  a  wise  one, 
and  as  long  as  a  citizen  did  not  interfere  with  his  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  Government,  nor  criticise  with  too  great  freedom 
his  disbursement  of  the  public  revenues,  Santos  gave  him  every 
encouragement  and  all  reasonable  concessions.  Ilis  methods 
were  rude,  cruel,  and  arbitrary ;  his  ministers  were  the  in¬ 
struments  of  his  will,  the  Congress  simply  one  of  the  fingers 
of  his  right  hand,  and  the  army  his  weapon  of  offence  and 
defence,  without  regard  to  the  Constitution,  the  laws,  or  the 
rio-hts  of  the  people,  while  the  courts  were  puppets  to  per¬ 
form  at  his  pleasure.  Occasionally  he  went  through  the  form 
of  holding  an  election,  but  the  soldiers  always  had  charge  of 
the  polls  and  counted  the  votes.  No  candidates  but  those 
favored  of  the  President  were  ever  elected  in  Uruguay,  and 
whenever  any  public  expression  was  called  for  by  him  the 
leaders  of  public  opinion  were  always  careful  to  discover  his 
preferences  and  anticipate  them.  If  a  true  and  complete  his¬ 
tory  of  his  administration,  and  his  military  career  preceding 
his  assumption  of  the  Presidency,  could  be  written,  it  would 
be  as  remarkable  a  document  as  the  events  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  any  land  could  justify.  * 

Santos  was  what  they  call  “  a  barrack  dog. '  That  is,  his 
father  was  a  soldier,  his  mother  a  rabona — one  of  that  class 
of  homeless  women  who  are  encouraged  by  the  Government 
to  follow  the  army — and  he  was  born  in  a  barracks.  Horn 
birth  until  he  was  able  to  bear  arms  he  was  kicked  about 
without  care  or  education,  generally  housed  and  fed  in  a 
military  garrison  or  camp.  He  entered  the  army  as  a  pri¬ 
vate  when  not  more  than  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  of  age, 
and  within  twenty  years,  by  reason  of  his  brains  and  force 
of  character,  became  its  commander-in-chief.  It  was  a  short 
step  to  a  dictatorship,  during  one  of  the  revolutions  that  were 
epidemic  in  Uruguay,  and  then  after  a  form  of  an  election 


MONTEVIDEO. 


595 


he  Avas  declared  “  constitutional  ”  President.  When  he  came 
into  power  Uruguay  was  going  backward,  and  had  been  for 
several  years ;  the  country  was  gradually  becoming  depopu- 


MAXIMO  SANTOS. 

(President  of  Uruguay  from  March  1,  18S2,  to  November,  1886.) 


lated,  property  was  greatly  depreciated  in  value,  everybody 
Avas  living  from  hand  to  mouth,  and  there  was  no  commerce 
of  consequence.  Although  Santos  was  a  brutal  tyrant,  the 
magnificent  results  of  his  progressive  policy  are  to  be  seen  on 
every  hand,  and  he  should  be  judged  accordingly.  The  re- 


596 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


suits  he  accomplished  should  be  permitted  to  obscure  his 
methods.  It  was  in  1S87  that  Santos  was  finally  overthrown, 
and  to  “  let  him  down  easy,”  as  the  saying  is,  his  successor  in 
the  Presidency  gave  him  credentials  as  an  Envoy  Extraordi- 
narv  and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  to  all  the  courts  of  Europe, 
where  he  has  since  remained.  Twice  he  has  attempted  to 
return  to  Montevideo,  and  once  got  as  far  as  the  harbor,  but 
was  not  permitted  to  land.  After  spending  a  few  months 
in  Buenos  Ayres,  he  became  convinced  that  his  power  was 
broken,  and  he  returned  to  Europe  to  remain  the  rest  of  his 
days  and  draw  a  salary  or  pension  that  is  paid  him  by  the 
Government  as  the  price  of  Ins  absence. 

The  President  of  Uruguay  in  1889  is  Gen.  Maximo  Tajes, 
a  man  of  education,  culture,  and  liberal  tendencies,  but  not 

so  much  of  an  autocrat  as  Santos. 

the  country  is  enjoying  great  prosperity  and  much-needed 
peace.  Immigration  is  very  large  and  increasing,  the  new¬ 
comers  being  mostly  from  Italy  and  the  Basque  provinces  of 
Spain— a  frugal,  industrious,  and  law-abiding  people.  Thev 
bring  a  good  deal  of  property  with  them;  m  fact,  according 
to  the  statistics  during  the  last  ten  years,  only  1335  people 
were  lodged  and  fed  at  the  expense  of  the  Government  e\  en 
for  a  day  There  are  some  German,  Swedish,  and  Swiss  col¬ 
onies  which  are  small  but  immensely  prosperous ;  but  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  has  not  encouraged  the  formation  of  colonies,  pre¬ 
ferring  individual  immigrants. 

It  is  said  that  there  is  not  an  acre  of  unproductive  land  in 
all  Uruguay,  and  that  its  area  of  seven  thousand  square 
leagues— a  little  more  than  that  of  England-is  capable  of 
sustaining  as  large  a  population  as  England,  Scotland,  and 
Wales  together.  The  soil  and  climate  are  of  such  a  charac¬ 
ter  that  any  grain  or  fruit  known  in  tlie  list  of  the  world  s 
product  can  be  produced  in  abundance.  Coffee  wifi  grow 
beside  corn,  and  bananas  and  pineapples  beside  wheat :  sugar 
and  potatoes,  apples  and  oranges,  m  fact  all  things  that 
man  requires  for  food  or  clothing,  are  capable  of  being  raided 
within  the  boundaries  of  the  republic  at  the  minimum  ot 


MONTEVIDEO. 


597 


labor.  There  are  medicinal  plants,  and  forests  of  useful  tim¬ 
ber,  plenty  of  grass  of  the  most  nutritious  quality  for  cattle, 
and  so  abundant  that  ten  times  more  can  be  fed  upon  the 


ONE  OF  THE  OLD  STREETS. 

same  area  than  in  the  Argentine  Republic.  There  is  plenty 
of  water  for  mechanical  purposes,  and  the  geologists  say  that 
much  of  the  surface  of  the  northern  provinces  is  underlaid  by 
coal-beds.  Nearly  all  sections  of  the  republic  may  be  reached 


598 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


by  navigable  rivers,  and  natural  harbors  are  frequent  along 
the  coast.  Besides  coal  and  silver  and  gold,  there  are  said  to 
be  many  other  rich  mineral  deposits,  and  the  report  of  a  Geo¬ 
logical  Commission,  recently  intrusted  with  an  examination 
of° these  resources,  reads  like  a  fable  of  Eldorado.  Even  if 
these  glowing  recitals  are  exaggerated,  there  is  no  doubt  of 
the  agricultural  and  pastoral  possibilities  of  the  country,  and 
all  Uruguay  needs  is  permanent  peace  to  become  a  rich  and 
powerful  nation.  Her  population  has  doubled  within  the  last 
few  years,  not  only  by  immigration,  but  from  natural  causes, 
and  her  statistics  show  a  larger  birth-rate  and  a  smaller  mor¬ 
tality  than  any  country  on  the  globe.  The  vital  tables  show 
a  net  increase  of  births  over  deaths  of  eighteen  m  a  thousand 
of  population,  the  birth-rate  averaging  forty -five  and  the 
death-rate  twenty -seven  per  thousand  during  the  last  five 


'  It  is  quite  remarkable,  and  the  facts  deserve  the  study  of 
scientists,  that  the  excess  of  males  born  in  Uruguay  is  so 
o-reat,  the  statistics  showing  that  of  every  1000  births  06I 
are  males  and  only  439  are  females.  In  the  United  States 
the  ratio  is  506  males  to  494  females ;  in  England,  485  to  51o ; 
and  on  the  Continent  of  Europe,  402  to  508.  Another  re¬ 
markable  fact,  which  is  attributed  to  the  climate,  is  that 
there  is  less  insanity  in  Uruguay  than  in  any  other  country, 
the  ratio  of  insane  being  only  95  per  100,000  of  population, 
while  in  the  United  States  it  is  329.  in  Great  Britain  322,  in 
France  248,  and  in  other  countries  equally  large  in  com¬ 
parison.  .  TT. 

It  is  said,  too,  that  living  is  cheaper  m  I  ruguay  than  any  ¬ 
where  else.  Beef  is  three  to  five  cents  a  pound,  mutton  and 
other  meats  about  the  same  price,  fish  five  cents  a  pound 
partridges  and  similar  birds  ten  cents  each,  chickens  and 
ducks  fifteen  cents  each,  and  vegetables  are  sold  at  propor¬ 
tionate  prices.  Labor  is  scarce  and  wages  are  high,  conse¬ 
quently  the  public  wealth  is  increasing  very  rapidly,  being 
estimated  in  1SS4  at  8580  per  capita  of  population.  Taking 
the  foreign  commerce  of  Montevideo  alone,  the  statistics 


MONTEVIDEO. 


599 


show  a  ratio  of  $240  for  each  citizen,  and  the  increase  is  very 
rapid.  But  a  still  greater  increase  is  shown  in  the  agricult¬ 
ural  and  pastoral  development  of  the  country.  •  With  a  pop¬ 
ulation  of  500,000  Uruguay  produces  5,000,000  bushels  of 
grain  annually,  or  an  average  of  ten  bushels  per  inhabitant, 
and  this  with  only  540,000  acres  of  ground  under  cultivation, 
including  vegetable  gardens  as  well  as  wheat  and  corn  fields. 
It  is  claimed  there  that  no  other  country  can  show  so  high 
an  average. 

The  increase  in  cattle,  sheep,  and  horses  is  astonishing,  there 
being  now  7,000,000  cattle,  700,000  horses,  and  11,000,000 
sheep  in  Uruguay,  valued  at  $86,000,000.  This  valuation  is 
very  small  when  considered  by  the  side  of  the  estimate  placed 
upon  such  stock  in  the  United  States,  being  less  than  five 
dollars  per  head  for  sheep,  horses,  and  cattle,  all  taken  to¬ 
gether.  The  horses  alone,  if  estimated  at  the  average  value 
of  $100,  would  be  worth  $70,000,000,  and  if  the  cattle  were 
valued  at  only  twelve  dollars  each,  which  is  a  low  estimate 
in  the  United  States,  the  7,000,000  head  owned  in  Uruguay 
would  be  worth  alone  the  amount  at  which  the  whole  live¬ 
stock  interest  of  the  country  is  valued. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  wealth  of  Uruguay  is  in  the 
hands  of  foreigners.  The  aborigines  are  totally  exterminated. 
It  is  the  only  country  in  South  America  where  “  civilization  ” 
has  been  thorough  and  complete  in  this  respect,  and  it  might 
be  searched  from  end  to  end  without  discovering  a  single 
representative  of  the  Indian  race  which  originally  occupied 
the  land.  The  descendants  of  the  Spanish  Conquistadors  are 
called  natives,  or  Orientals,  while  foreigners  are  those  who 
were  not  born  in  the  country.  Of  the  500,000  population, 
166,000  are  said  to  be  of  foreign  nativity,  and  most  of  them 
have  come  in  within  the  last  ten  years.  This  class  holds 
about  $237,000,000  of  property,  or  $1440  per  capita. 

The  interior  of  Uruguay  is  being  rapidly  developed  by  the 
construction  of  railways  under  the  control  of  the  Government, 
and  representing  an  investment  of  about  $12,000,000.  Be¬ 
sides  the  lines  already  in  operation,  extensions  are  in  prog- 


600 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ress  which,  when  completed,  will  give  the  country  a  system 
of  about  1500  miles  of  road,  at  a  cost  of  something  like 
§50,000,000 !  Railroad  building  is  cheap  in  Uruguay,  as 
grades  are  light  and  easy,  and  ties  are  plenty  and  accessible. 
The  commerce  of  the  country  now  amounts  to  $58,000,000 
annually,  with  $29,500,000  of  imports  and  $28,500,000  of  ex¬ 
ports.  The  imports  are  unusually  large  of  late  years,  because 
of  the  vast  amount  of  railway  supplies  and  other  merchan¬ 
dise  used  by  the  Government.  The  bulk  of  the  trade  is  with 
England  and  France,  the  United  States  having  but  a  very 
small  share,  which  consists  chiefly  of  lumber,  kerosene-oil,  and 
agricultural  implements.  Uruguay  ships  to  Europe  annually 
about  $4,300,000  worth  of  hides,  $7,000,000  in  wool,  and 
$6,000,000  in  beef.  There  are  twenty-one  lines  of  steamers 
connecting  Uruguay  with  Europe,  and  sending  from  forty  to 
sixty  vessels  each  way  every  month,  while  there  is  no  direct 
communication  with  the  United  States  except  by  occasional 
sailing-vessels. 

The  foreign  commerce  of  the  countiy  is  increasing  with 
great  rapidity.  In  1875  it  was  $25,000,000  ;  in  1878,  $33,000- 
000  ;  in  1S80,  $39,000,000;  in  1881,  $38,000,000  ;  in  1882,  $40,- 
000,000  ;  in  1S83,  $45,000,000 ;  in  1SS4,  $51,000,000  ;  in  1885, 
$52,000,000 ;  in  1886,  $55,000,000 ;  and  in  1887,  $58,000,000, 
having  increased  $33,000,000  in  thirteen  years,  during  which 
time  the  exports  have  run  up  from  $12,000,000  to  $28,500,000, 
and  the  imports  from  $12,000,000  to  29,500,000. 

The  great  wealth  of  Uruguay  is  at  present  in  cattle  and 
sheep,  and  its  chief  exports  are  wool  and  beef,  but  the  agri¬ 
cultural  resources  of  the  country  will  be  the  basis  of  its  fut¬ 
ure  greatness,  and  it  will  enter  into  competition  with  the 
United  States  in  supplying  the  world  with  breadstuffs  and 
provisions.  When  a  total  population  of  only  five  hundred 
thousand,  including  men,  women,  and  children,  carries  on  a 
foreign  commerce  of  nearly  sixty  million  dollars  annually,  it 
can  be  inferred  that  there  is  energy  and  industry  at  work, 
and  a  productive  field  for  it  to  engage  in.  It  is  claimed 
that  Uruguay  has  greater  natural  resources  than  any  other 


MONTEVIDEO. 


601 


South  American  country,  and  it  is  probably  true.  It  is  also 
claimed  that  the  profits  on  labor  and  capital  are  greater 
there  than  elsewhere  on  the  continent,  which  the  statistics 
demonstrate. 

The  largest  export  of  Uruguay  is  wool,  20,000,000  sheep 
making  a  clip  worth  over  $10,000,000  for  exportation.  The 
increase  in  sheep  has  been  310  per  cent,  in  ten  years.  The 
next  article  of  export  is  beef,  valued  at  about  $6,000,000, 
being  the  product  of  about  8,000,000  cattle,  which  are  also 
rapidly  increasing.  The  third  export  in  value  is  hides,  of 
which  $5,000,000  worth  are  annually  shipped.  Then  come 
about  $4,500,000  worth  of  wheat,  $1,000,000  worth  of  corn, 
and  $2,500,000  worth  of  other  agricultural  products.  All  of 
these  have  more  than  doubled  within  the  last  ten  years,  and 
are  now  increasing  like  compound  interest. 

We  are  accustomed  to  regard  Uruguay  as  an  obscure  and 
insignificant  country,  worth  not  even  a  thought,  but  the  com¬ 
mercial  strides  she  is  making  show  that  she  means  competi¬ 
tion  with  the  United  States  in  the  near  future.  Chili  has 
taken  the  flour  market  of  the  west  coast  of  South  America 
away  from  California,  and  Uruguay  and  the  Argentine  Re¬ 
public  are  soon  to  meet  our  Dakota,  Illinois,  and  Kansas 
wheat  in  the  markets  of  Europe,  while  they  threaten  an  even 
greater  danger  to  our  cattle  interests.  With  100,000,000 
sheep  in  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  20,000,000  sheep  in 
Uruguay ;  with  30,000,000  cattle  in  one  country  and  8,000,000 
in  the  other,  and  only  about  4,000,000  people  to  furnish  do¬ 
mestic  consumers  between  them,  it  is  easy  to  see  what  the 
supply  of  beef  and  wool  and  mutton  will  soon  be  for  ex¬ 
portation.  There  is  more  cause  for  alarm  in  the  ranches 
of  Uruguay  and  the  Argentine  Republic  than  in  the  man¬ 
ufactures  of  England  and  Germany.  We  can  compete  with 
foreign  industries  in  the  quality  and  price  of  mechanical 
products,  but  we  cannot  compete  with  ranchmen  who  can 
put  beef  cattle  into  the  market  at  ten  and  twelve  dollars 
per  head. 

One  of  the  greatest  advantages  the  cattle  producers  of 


602 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Uruguay  and  the  Argentine  Republic  will  always  have  over 
those  of  the  United  States  is  the  nearness  of  their  ranges  to 
the  sea.  The  present  supply  of  beef  in  both  these  countries 
for  the  export  market  conies  from  within  a  radius  of  one 
hundred  miles  from  an  ocean  harbor  in  which  can  be  found 
the  steamers  of  every  maritime  nation  on  earth  except  our 
own.  Ocean  vessels  can  go  two  thousand  miles  up  the  River 
Plate  and  live  hundred  miles  up  the  Uruguay  River  into 
the  heart  of  the  cattle  country,  and  almost  tie  up  to  the 
trees  on  the  ranches,  while  our  cattle  have  to  be  carried  fif¬ 
teen  hundred  to  four  thousand  miles  on  the  cars.  The  geo¬ 
graphical  and  navigable  conditions  of  these  countries  are 
such  that  ours  would  only  equal  them  if  ocean  steamers 
could  visit  Denver  and  Fort  Dodge.  Any  man  of  business 
can  calculate  the  difference  in  the  value  of  the  product  and 
the  difference  in  profits.  It  is  claimed  that  the  cattle  com¬ 
panies  of  the  countries  of  which  I  have  been  speaking  can 
sell  marketable  steers  at  ten  and  twelve  dollars  a  head,  and 
declare  thirty  per  cent,  dividends.  We  will  not  have  the 
native  Spanish  population  to  compete  with,  but  Englishmen, 
Irishmen,  and  Scotchmen,  who  are  going  in  large  numbers 
and  with  an  immense  amount  of  capital  into  the  River  Plate 
countries  to  establish  ranches  and  raise  beef  for  the  Euro¬ 
pean  market. 

Montevideo,  the  capital  of  Uruguay,  lies  upon  a  tongue  of 
land  which  stretches  out  into  the  River  Plate,  nearly  the 
shape  of  Manhattan  Island,  on  which  New  York  City  stands, 
except  that  it  has  the  Atlantic  Ocean  on  one  side  and  a  river 
sixty-five  miles  wide  on  the  other.  This  strip  is  of  limestone 
formation,  with  very  little  soil  on  the  surface,  and  rises  in 
the  centre  to  an  apex  like  a  whale’s  back  or  the  roof  of 
a  house,  so  that  the  streets  running  northward  and  south¬ 
ward  are  like  a  series  of  terraces  rising  one  above  the  other, 
not  only  affording  perfect  natural  drainage,  but  giving  almost 
every  house  in  town  a  vista  of  the  river  or  the  sea  from  the 
upper  windows.  As  you  approach  Montevideo  the  city  seems 
much  larger  than  it  really  is,  and  Yankee  Doodle  could  not 


MONTEVIDEO. 


603 


complain  of  it  as  he  did 
of  Boston  when  he  said 
he  could  not  see  the 
town  because  there  were 
so  many  houses. 

There  is  no  city  more 
delightfully  situated' 
than  the  capital  of  Uru¬ 
guay,  and  viewed  from 
any  direction  the  pros¬ 
pect  of  Montevideo  is 
a  lovely  one.  Were  it 
not-  for  those  dreadful 
pamperos,  which  during 
the  winter  season  sweep 
the  whole  southern  half 
of  the  continent  from 
the  Andes  to  the  sea, 
searching  every  nook 
and  crevice  for  dust  to 
cast  into  the  faces  of 
the  people,  and  parch¬ 
ing  the  skin,  this  place 
might  be  made  an  earth¬ 
ly  type  of  Paradise.  But 
nothing  can  afford  shel¬ 
ter  from  these  searching 
winds,  and  even  straw¬ 
berries  the  year  round 
are  no  compensation. 

The  old  Spaniards  had 
a  queer  way  of  naming 
places.  When  the  cat¬ 
alogue  of  saints  was  ex¬ 
hausted  and  duplicated 
and  triplicated,  and  all 
the  holy  fasts  and  feasts 


604 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


had  served  to  christen  colonies  and  towns,  they  “  dropped  into 
poetry,”  as  it  were,  and  gave  their  imaginations  a  chance  at 
nomenclature.  For  example,  the  Rio  de  la  Plata  means  the 
“ silver  river,”  so  called, I  suppose,  because  its  waters  have  no 
the  slightest  resemblance  to  silver,  but  are  of  the  odor  of 
weak  chocolate,  like  our  own  Missouri.  Then,  again,  the  Ar¬ 
gentine  Republic  means  the  “land  of  silver,  and  was  so 
called,  not  because  mines  were  found  there,  but  to  attract  co  - 

onists  in  the  expectation  of  finding  wealth. 

The  real  name  of  Montevideo  is  San  Felipe  de  Montevideo 
which  does  not  soimd  quite  so  poetical  when  translated  into 
Enofish,  for  it  means  “  I  see  the  hill  of  St.  Philip.”  The  name 
of  the  saint  has  been  dropped,  and  now  the  place  is  know 
« I  see  the  Hill  ”  The  hill  which  the  discoverer  saw  used 
S  be  called  after  the  Apostle,  but  now  is  called  the ‘‘  Cerro  ’ 

It  hiis  a  picturesque  old  fortress  on  its  crest,  which  is  inno¬ 
cently  supposed  to  afford  protection  to  the  capital  and 
harbor  If  the  place  were  ever  attacked,  the  guns  of  the  fort 
“furnish  L  more  protection  than  so  many 
h  stands  back  so  far  behind  the  city  that  half  of  the  bans 
would  fall  on  the  roofs  of  the  bouses  and  an  ^adtmgfoi^ 

J  ^  i  q  to  f n  1  StI  In  those  hard  yeais  a  new 

nine  years,  from  1  -  *  ^  with  shoos  and 

snvnim  no  around  the  besieging  encampments,  with  shops  an 

rs  3  churches  and  factories.  After  the  commg  of  peace 

i::; — * » 


MONTEVIDEO. 


605 


the  Gulf  Stream  from  the  ocean,  and  the  heat  of  summer  by 
the  sea-breeze  that  seldom  fails  to  perform  its  grateful  serv¬ 
ice.  When  it  is  not  June  in  Uruguay,  it  is  October — never 
too  hot  and  never  too  cold.  There  is  not  such  a  thing  as  a 
stove  in  the  whole  country,  but  some  of  the  foreigners  have 
fireplaces  in  their  houses,  to  temper  the  winds  for  the  tender 
feet.  What  Montevideo  most  needs,  like  Buenos  Ayres,  is  a 
harbor,  for  during  a  pampero  the  ships  at  anchor  in  the  river 
are  without  protection,  and  at  all  times  the  landing  and  the 
shipping  of  merchandise  are  conducted  with  great  difficulty  in 
lighters,  as  at  the  latter  place.  A  contract  has  been  made 
with  a  French  company  to  construct  two  breakwaters  or  piers 
in  triangular  form,  and  the  work,  already  commenced,  is  ex¬ 
pected  to  be  completed  in  1890. 

Around  the  curve  of  the  bay,  fronting  the  water,  are  a  se¬ 
ries  of  beautiful  villas,  or  “  quintas,”  as  they  are  called  (pro¬ 
nounced  Tdntas ),  the  suburban  residences  of  wealthy  men, 
built  in  the  ancient  Italian  style,  with  all  the  luxury  and  lav¬ 
ish  display  of  modern  extravagance,  and  reminding  one  of  the 
Pompeian  palaces,  or  the  Roman  villas  in  the  golden  age 
which  Horace  pictured  in  his  Odes.  These  residences  are  of 
the  most  picturesque  architecture,  and  would  be  attractive 
anywhere,  but  here  they  are  surrounded  by  a  perpetual  gar¬ 
den,  and  by  thousands  of  flowers  which  preserve  their  color 
and  their  fragrance  winter  and  summer,  and  give  the  place  an 
appearance  of  everlasting  spring. 

One  of  these  beautiful  retreats  belongs  to  a  Philadelphian, 
Mr.  W.  D.  Evans,  who  has  a  romantic  history,  and  is  the 
friend  of  every  naval  officer  and  every  skipper  that  enters 
the  port.  Thirty  years  ago  Mr.  Evans  shipped  as  mate  on  a 
sailing-vessel  bound  for  Uruguay.  She  was  wrecked  off  the 
coast  by  one  of  the  ill  winds  which  seamen  meet,  and  he  was 
cast  ashore,  penniless  and  friendless.  All  the  property  he  had 
in  the  world  were  an  ordinary  ship’s  boat,  which  he  had  saved 
from  the  wreck,  and  the  clothing  which  he  wore.  But  he 
had  a  strong  reserve  in  the  form  of  muscle,  courage,  and  man¬ 
liness,  and  with  his  boat  he  commenced  life  as  a  cargador — 


006 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


that  is,  a  longshoreman — and  offered  his  services  to  the  pub¬ 
lic  to  convey  passengers  and  baggage  to  and  from  the  ships 
in  the  harbor.  About  a  week  after  he  had  entered  his  new 
employment  he  was  caught  in  a  gale  outside  the  harbor.  His 
boat  was  capsized,  and  he  floated  around  for  four  hours  cling¬ 
ing  to  her  keel,  until  rescued  by  the  crew  of  a  steamer  which 
happened  to  be  coming  in.  He  thanked  his  saviors  gracious¬ 
ly,  but  declined  their  invitation  to  go  on  board  the  steamer, 
only  asking  assistance  to  right  his  boat,  in  order  that  he 
might  sail  back  to  town.  lie  was  jeered  at,  and  advised  to 
let  the  old  tub  drift,  as  it  was  worthless ;  but  he  told  the  sail¬ 
ors  that  while  it  was  not  much  of  a  boat,  it  was  all  the  prop¬ 
erty  he  owned  in  the  world,  and  he  intended  to  make  a  fort¬ 
une  out  of  it  yet.  They  liked  the  spirit  of  the  man,  and 
helped  him  put  his  boat  in  sailing  trim,  wishing  him  good- 
luck- as  he  started  back  to  Montevideo. 

In  the  centre  of  the  finest  private  park  in  the  River  Plate 
country  is  a  handsome  bronze  fountain  which  must  have  cost 
several  thousand  dollars.  In  its  basin,  casting  a  shadow  over 
myriads  of  gold-fish  and  speckled  trout,  floats  Mr.  Evans’s  old 
boat,  the  most  precious  piece  of  property  he  owns,  and  he  is 
said  to  be  worth  millions.  He  never  allows  a  day  to  pass 
without  visiting  the  fountain,  and  no  guest  ever  comes  to  the 
Evans  quinta  who  is  not  brought  to  bow  to  the  idol.  There 
is  something  pathetic  in  the  affection  and  reverence  which 
the  millionaire  shows  for  the  rotten  old  tub.  “ Shelias  saved 
mv  life  twice,”  says  Mr.  Evans  to  everybody,  “and  when  I 
was  flat  broke  she  was  my  only  friend.  You  gentlemen  may 
not  notice  anything  pretty  about  her.  but  she  is  the  most 
beautiful  thing  I  ever  saw.” 

There  never  comes  to  Montevideo  a  distressed  seaman  of 
any  race,  worthy  or  unworthy,  who  does  not  find  a  snug  har¬ 
bor  through  Mr.  Evans's  bountiful  generosity,  and  there  is 
not  a  man  in  all  the  valley  of  the  River  Plate  who  does  not 
feel  a  pleasure  in  grasping  his  hand. 

There  are  many  beautiful  residences  and  fine  stores  in 
Montevideo,  and  everything  that  can  be  bought  in  Paris  can 


MONTEVIDEO. 


607 


be  found  there.  There  are  three  theatres  and  an  Italian  op¬ 
era,  a  race  -  course  and  any  number  of  clubs,  a  university,  a 
public  library,  a  museum,  and  all  the  etceteras  of  modern  civ¬ 
ilization.  The  ladies  dress  in  the  most  stylish  of  Paris  fash¬ 
ions,  and  among  the  aristocracy  the  social  life  is  very  gay. 
The  people  are  highly  educated,  are  making  money  quickly, 
and  spend  it  like  princes.  The  Hotel  Oriental  is  the  best 
in  South  America,  being  built  of  Italian  marble,  and  lux¬ 
uriously  furnished.  There  are  hospitals,  asylums,  and  other 
benevolent  institutions  supported  by  public 'and  private  char¬ 
ity  ;  two  Protestant  churches,  Protestant  schools,  fifty-five 
miles  of  street  railways,  carrying  nine  million  passengers 
a  year — which  is  a  remarkably  high  average  for  a  city  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  population — boulevards 
and  parks,  gas  and  electric  lights,  telephones  without  num% 
ber,  and  only  now  and  then  does  something  occur  to  remind 
a  tourist  that  he  is  not  in  one  of  the  most  modern  cities  of 
Europe. 

The  vestibules  of  the  tenement  -  houses,  and  the  patios ,  or 
courts,  in  the  centre  of  each,  which  invariably  furnish  a  cool 
loafing  -  place,  are  commonly  paved  with  the  knuckle  -  bones 
of  sheep,  arranged  in  fantastic  designs  like  mosaic-work.  They 
always  attract  the  attention  of  strangers,  and  it  is  a  standing 
joke  to  tell  the  gullible  that  they  are  the  knuckle-bones  of 
human  beings  who  were  killed  during  the  many  revolutions 
wli  ich  occurred  in  that  country. 

The  ladies  of  Uruguay  are  considered  to  rank  next  to  their 
sisters  of  Peru  in  beauty,  and  there  is  something  about  the 
atmosphere  which  gives  their  complexion  a  purity  and  clear¬ 
ness  that  is  not  found  among  ladies  of  any  other  country. 
But,  like  all  Spanish  ladies,  when  they  reach  maturity  they 
lose  their  grace  and  symmetry  of  form,  and  usually  become 
very  stout.  This  is  undoubtedly  owing  in  a  great  degree  to 
their  lack  of  exercise ;  for  they  never  walk,  but  spend  their 
entire  lives  in  a  carriage  or  a  rocking-chair.  Native  ladies 
who  have  married  foreigners,  and  gone  abroad  to  France  or 
England,  and  there  adopted  the  custom  of  those  countries, 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


608 

preserve  their  beauty  much  longer  than  their  sisters  who  live 
mTf  LUv—t  Offices  occupy  a  rather  plain ‘ 

cant  structure,  which  does  not  compare  m  architectural  b^  y 
with  the  private  residences  and  business  blocks.  Most  oi 


SCENE  IN'  MONTEVIDEO. 


. ,  •  tu  mvnpr  floors  of  their  business  bouses, 
merchants  reside  “  residence  streets.  The 

"nd  naturally;  as  most  of  the  architects  and  budders 
are  Italians. 


MONTEVIDEO. 


609 


In  the  centre  of  the  city  are  two  large  public  squares.  One, 
the  Plaza  Constitution,  is  a  military  parade-ground,  and  upon 
it  fronts  the  Government  building  and  military  barracks. 
The  other  is  the  Plaza  Washington,  named  in  honor  of  the 
Father  of  American  Liberty.  Crossing  Calle  de  Washington, 
and  going  north  a  block,  one  comes  to  “  Calle  Yiente  y  Cinco 
de  Mayo  ”  (the  Twenty-fifth  of  May  Street).  This  seems  odd 
at  first,  but  it  is  sanctified  in  the  minds  of  the  Uruguayans  by 
the  story  of  their  valor  and  patriotism.  /■  It  commemorates 
the  national  independence.  Turning  west  on  this  street  tow¬ 
ards  the  point  of  the  promontory  on  which  the  city  is  built, 
the  traveller  stands  before  one  of  the  best  buildings  in  the 
city — the  Hospital  de  Caridad  (Charity  Hospital).  It  is  three 
stories  high  and  three  hundred  feet  long.  It  covers  an  acre 
of  ground,  and  has  accommodations,  or  beds,  for  three  hun¬ 
dred  patients.  Of  course  the  Sisters  of  Charity  are  supreme 
in  these  wards,  and  large  numbers  of  patients  are  treated  here 
every  year. 

The  Hospital  de  Caridad  has  become  popular  by  the  manner 
in  which  the  money  is  raised  for  its  maintenance.  It  is  sup¬ 
ported  by  a  public  lottery.  This  finds  favor  everywhere. 
One  meets  many  men,  women,  and  boys  on  the  streets  of 
South  American  cities  selling  lottery  tickets,  as  he  would  see 
newsboys  selling  papers  in  North  American  cities.  Not  far 
from  Charity  Hospital  is  the  British  Hospital.  It  is  a  fine, 
substantial  building,  and  worth}7-  of  the  people  who  built  it. 
It  cost  nearly  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  can  accommodate 
sixty  patients. 

The  cemetery  is  a  long  way  off,  around  on  the  south  side 
of  the  city,  and  is  a  place  of  beauty.  The  entrance  is  tasteful, 
and  much  more  elaborate  and  expensive  than  any  cemetery 
entrance  in  the  United  States.  The  chapel  down  the  walk 
in  front  of  the  entrance,  with  its  ornamental  dome  and  mar¬ 
ble  floors  and  ornaments,  is  Avorth  seeing.  The  ground  is 
occupied  Avith  private  or  family  vaults  much  more  elaborate 
and  expensive  than  those  one  sees  in  North  America.  There 
are  individual  tombs  in  North  American  cemeteries  far  more 
39 


610 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


elegant  than  any  in  Uruguay ;  but,  taken  as  a  whole,  this  ffltj 
of  “the  dead  is  of  a  higher  order.  The  streets  aie  too 
row,  and  the  surface  is  nearly  all  utilized.  It  is  common  to 
have  class  doors  back  of  the  iron  gates,  so  one  can  look  into 
the  little  rooms  above  the  vaults.  The  walls  of  these  are  cov¬ 
ered  with  pictures  and  curious  wire  and  bead  work 
There  are  crucifixes  and  candles  everywhere.  In  om  tomb* 
to  be  seen  a  picture  of  Mary  seated  on  an  island  01 :  Boat... 
raft  pulling  souls  out  of  the  flames  ot  purgatory.  T1  c  10 
StoJS  are  stretching  up  their  hands  pleading  for  help,  and 
Man-  is  watching  the  prayers  on  earth  and  choosing  accord- 
im-lv  Back  of  these  tombs,  and  forming  a  high  wall  twenty 
or° twenty-five  feet  high,  is  a  long  series  of  vaults  one  above 
another,  each  with  an  opening  large  enough  to  receive  a  caske 
shoved  in  endwise.  These  vaults  are  either  owned,  or  rented 
for  a  term  of  years,  or  as  long  as  the  friends  pay  the  lent 
In  case  of  default,  the  remains  are  taken  out  and  dtoppo 
into  deep  pits,  and  the  vaults  rented  to  the  next  come. 

The  standing  army  of  Uruguay  consists  of  five  thousand 
men  mostly  concentrated  at  the  capita  .  ’ 

“  th  the  exception  of  that  of  the  President’s  body-guard-a 
battalion  of  three  or  four  hundred  men,  dressed  m  a  nove 
and  striking  costume  of  leopard-skins— is  of  the  zouave  pa  - 
‘tern  Ther"e  are  connected  with  the  army  several  fine  band  , 
which  on  alternate  evenings  give  concerts  in  t  e  P 
These  concerts  are  attended  by  aU  classes  of  people,  and  fur- 

v!ntr"oS  one  thinks'  of  walking.  Each  family 
has  its  carriage,  saddle,  and  other  horses,  and  even  thebeg- 
.rnrs  CO  about",  he  streets  on  horseback.  It  is  a  common  thing 
for  a'person  to  be  stopped  on  the  street,  by  a  horseman and 

first  and  suggest  highway  robbery ;  bnt  the  appeal  is  made 
"a  humble,  pftiful  tone  that  the  feeling  of  alarm  -u 
vanishes.  -For  the  love  of  Jesus  -nor  give  a  poor  smk 
man  a  centavo.  I’ve  bad  no  bread  or  coffee  to-day, 


MONTEVIDEO. 


611 


receiving  the  pittance,  the  beggar  will  gallop  off  like  a  cow¬ 
boy  to  the  nearest  drinking-place. 

The  national  drink  is  called  cana ,  and  is  made  of  the  fer¬ 
mented  juice  of  the  sugar-cane.  It  contains  about  ninety 
per  cent,  of  alcohol,  and  is  sold  at  two  cents  a  goblet ;  so 
that  a  spree  in  Uruguay  is  within  the  reach  of  the  poorest 
man.  But  there  is  very  little  intemperance  in  comparison 
with  that  in  our  own  country.  On  ordinary  days  drunken 
men  are  seldom  seen  on  the  streets,  but  on  the  evening  of  a  ‘ 
religious  feast-day  the  common  people  usually  engage  in  a 
glorious  carousal. 

The  policemen  in  Montevideo  are  detailed  from  the  army, 
and  carry  sabres  instead  of  clubs,  which  they  use  with  telling 
effect  upon  offenders  who  resist  arrest.  A  few  years  ago 
there  was  no  safety  for  people  who  were  out  late  at  night 
either  in  the  city  or  country ;  robberies  and  murders  were  of 
frequent  occurrence,  and  yet  the  prisons  were  empty.  But 
President  Santos  rules  with  an  iron  hand,  and  after  a  few 
highwaymen  and  murderers  were  hanged,  there  was  a  notice¬ 
able  change  in  the  condition  of  affairs,  and  now  a  woman 
or  a  child  is  as  safe  upon  the  streets  or  highways  of  the 
country  as  in  their  own  homes. 

One  of  the  curious  customs  of  Uruguay  is  the  method  of 
making  butter.  The  dairy-man  pours  the  milk,  warm  from 
the  cow,  into  an  inflated  pig  or  goat  skin,  hitches  it  to  his 
i  saddle  by  a  long  lasso,  and  gallops  five  or  six  miles  into  town 
with  the  milk-sack  pounding  along  on  the  road  behind  him. 
When  he  reaches  the  city  his  churning  is  over,  the  butter  is 
made,  and  he  peddles  it  from  door  to  door,  dipping  out  with 
a  long  wooden  spoon  the  quantity  desired  by  each  family. 
Though  all  sorts  of  modern  agricultural  machinery  are  used 
on  the  farms  of  Uruguay,  the  natives  cannot  be  induced  to 
adopt  the  wooden  churn.  Some  of  the  foreigners  use  it, 
but  the  butter  is  said  to  be  not  so  good  as  that  made  in  the 
curious  primitive  fashion.  Fresh  milk  is  sold  by  driving 
cows  from  door  to  door  along  the  principal  streets,  and  milk¬ 
ing  them  into  the  jars  of  the  customers. 


612 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


During  the  last  year  religious  and  political  circles  have 
been  in  a  state  of  the  greatest  agitation,  owing  to  the  resist¬ 
ance  of  the  piiests  to  the  arbitrary  policy  of  the  Government 
f  or  several  years  the  Church  has  seen  itself  stripped  of  its 
ancient  prerogatives,  and  its  occupation  and  income  gradually 
i  estricted  by  the  enactment  of  laws  conferring  upon  the  civil 
magistrates  duties  which  were  formerly  within  the  jurisdic¬ 
tion  of  the  priests  alone.  Under  the  constitution,  the  estab¬ 
lished  religion  of  the  country  is  the  Roman  Catholic,  and  the 
archbishop  was  formerly  a  greater  man  than  the  President, 
being  the  final  authority  in  matters  political  as  well  as  spir¬ 
itual. 

Ihe  Romish  Church,  like  the  Spanish  kings,  ruled  very  un¬ 
wisely  in  the  South  American  dominions,  aud  instead  of 
keeping  pace  with  the  progress  of  the  people,  endeavored  to 
enforce  fifteenth  century  dogmas  and  practices  in  the  nine¬ 
teenth.  The  result  is  the  same  everywhere.  The  Liberal  ele¬ 
ment,  representing  the  progressive  and  educated,  have  denied 
the  authority  of  the  Church,  and  defied  its  mandates.  The 
Liberals  have  been  growing  stronger  and  the  Church  grow¬ 
ing  weaker  each  year,  until  the  former  are  in  power  every¬ 
where  except  in  Ecuador,  and  have  given  the  priests  repeated 
and  bitter  doses  of  their  own  medicine.  Santos,  when  Presi¬ 
dent  of  Uruguay,  cared  no  more  for  the  curse  of  Rome  than 
for  the  bleating  of  the  sheep  upon  his  estancia,  and  was 
arbitrary  and  merciless,  carrying  on  a  war  in  which  the  Cleri¬ 
cal  party  has  been  driven  to  the  wall,  the  parish  schools  closed, 
the  monks  and  nuns  expelled,  and  the  pulpits  silenced.  The 
first  step  was  to  take  the  education  of  the  children  out  of  the 
hands  of  the  Church  by  establishing  free  schools  and  a  com¬ 
pulsory  education  law*,  under  which  the  parish  schools  were 
not  recognized  in  the  national  system  of  education.  The 
money  which  formerly  had  been  given  to  the  Church  is  de¬ 
voted  to  the  school  fund.  Then  the  registration  of  births 
and  deaths  was  taken  from  the  parish  clergy  and  placed  in 
the  hands  of  the  civil  officials.  Formerly  the  legitimacy  of 
a  child  could  not  be  established  without  a  certificate  from  the 


MONTEVIDEO. 


613 


priest  in  whose  parish  it  was  born ;  and  the  cemeteries  were 
closed  to  heretics.  The  next  thing  was  the  passage  of  the 
civil  marriage  law,  similar  to  that  of  France,  which  required 
every  couple  to  be  married  by  a  magistrate,  in  order  that  the 
legitimacy  of  their  offspring  might  be  established.  This  was 
a  serious  blow  at  the  revenues  of  the  Church,  as  its  income 
from  marriage  fees  was  very  large.  It  formerly  cost  twenty- 
five  dollars  to  get  married,  and  very  few  of  the  peons,  or  la¬ 
boring  classes,  could  afford  the  luxury.  Now  it  costs  but  one 
dollar.  The  Church  submitted  to  all  assaults  upon  it  until 
the  marriage  law  was  passed,  and  then  it  openly  defied  the 
civil  authorities,  and  threatened  to  excommunicate  all  mem¬ 
bers  who  obeyed  the  statute. 

President  Santos  is  not  a  man  to  quietly  endure  defiance 
of  his  authority.  He  ordered  the  police  to  arrest  and  im¬ 
prison  every  priest  who  preached  such  doctrine.  Three  or 
four  arrests  were  made,  when  the  archbishop  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  President  declaring  that  the  Church  could  not 
and  would  not  recognize  marriages  formed  without  its  bene¬ 
diction,  and  that  the  police  authorities  had  no  right  to  deter¬ 
mine  what  subjects  should  be  discussed  in  the  pulpit.  The 
President  took  no  notice  of  the  protest,  further  than  to  direct 
the  police  to  carry  out  their  previous  orders.  The  Papal 
Nuncio,  legate  from  the  Holy  See,  interfered  and  entered 
his  remonstrance,  whereupon  he  was  given  forty-eight  hours 
to  leave  the  country.  The  archbishop  then  instructed  the 
priests  not  to  preach  any  sermons  whatever,  but  to  confine 
their  spiritual  offices  to  the  celebration  of  the  mass.  Then  a 
law  was  passed  abolishing  all  houses  of  religious  seclusion, 
and  forbidding  secret  religious  orders  within  the  territory  of 
Uruguay.  The  excuse  for  this  was  that  the  monasteries  were 
the  hot-beds  of  political  conspiracy,  which  was  probably  true. 
An  edict  was  issued  expelling  all  monks  and  nuns  from  Uru¬ 
guay,  and  many  of  them  at  once  left  the  monasteries,  some 
taking  refuge  in  private  families,  others  going  into  hospitals 
and  almshouses,  but  more  left  the  country. 

On  the  first  of  August,  1885,  all  the  convents,  except  one, 


614 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


were  closed.  This  one  had  for  its  Mother  Superior  a  sister 
of  President  Santa  Maria,  of  Chili.  She  was  a  woman  of 
pluck,  and  determined  to  defy  the  law.  When  the  first  of 
August  arrived,  the  inspectors  of  police  went  to  her  place, 
called  “  The  House  of  the  Good  Shepherd,”  and  being  denied 
admittance,  burst  in  the  doors.  The  Mother  Superior  was 
found  alone,  and  when  asked  what  had  become  of  the  Sisters, 
refused  to  answer  the  question.  A  search  was  made,  and 
forty -five  terror-stricken  women  were  discovered  concealed 
in  the  loft  of  the  chapel  and  under  the  altar.  They  cried 
pitifully,  and  falling  before  the  cross  of  Christ,  begged  for 
Ilis  protection;  but  the  police  dragged  them  out  and  gave 
them  orders  to  leave  the  country  at  once.  Some  of  them 
took  refuge  in  private  houses,  and  the  Mother  Superior,  who, 
it  was  supposed,  would  be  imprisoned,  found  an  asylum  in  the 
house  of  an  Irish  Roman  Catholic  named  Jackson,  Avho  raised 
the  English  flag  over  his  roof.  They  soon  after  disappeared, 
however,  and  quietly  left  the  country. 

This  ended  the  supremacy  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
in  Uruguay.  The  next  liberal  movement  towards  its  ex¬ 
termination  will  undoubtedly  be  the  confiscation  of  its  prop¬ 
erty  ;  but  as  yet  no  steps  have  been  taken  in  that  direction. 
Except  among  the  women,  there  is  very  little  sympathy  for 
the  priests.  Men  are  seldom  seen  in  a  church  except  on  not¬ 
able  feast-days,  but  the  women  go  to  mass  every  morning, 
and  perform  the  duties  of  their  religion  with  ardent  devotion. 
Protestantism  is  making  considerable  progress  in  Uruguay 
under  the  direction  of  the  Rev.  Thomas  Wood,  formerly  of 
Indiana,  who  has  been  superintendent  of  Methodist  missions 
in  the  River  Flate  valley  for  many  years.  There  are  in 
Montevideo  two  Protestant  churches,  and  several  schools  for 
ordinary  as  well  as  religious  instruction.  One  of  the  churches 
is  under  the  care  of  the  Established  Church  of  England,  and 
is  the  fashionable  place  of  worship  for  foreigners.  'So  mis¬ 
sion  work  is  done  by  it,  but  it  has  a  Sabbath-school,  and  there 
is  regular  preaching  on  Sundays.  The  success  of  Mr.  A\  ood's 
labors  is  very  marked,  particularly  among  the  natives.  He 


MONTEVIDEO. 


615 


receives  encouragement,  but  no  financial  aid,  from  the  Gov¬ 
ernment.  His  work  is  supported  by  the  Missionary  Board  of 
the  Methodist  Church  of  New  York,  and  all  he  asks  of  the 
Government  is  its  non-interference.  This  it  agrees  to,  and 
gives  him  full  .protection  besides.  Mr.  Wood  is  an  active, 
energetic,  and  enthusiastic  man,  and  the  Methodists  could  not 
have  placed  their  work  under  a  better  superintendent. 

Standing  on  the  Plaza  Constitution,  one  sees  towering  up, 
one  hundred  and  thirty-three  feet  above,  the  great  cathedral, 
a  large,  plain,  and  somewhat  imposing  structure.  It  was  dedi¬ 
cated  eighty-two  years  ago,  but  time  and  the  fortunes  of  war 
have  dealt  kindly  with  it.  On  entering  this  building,  at  first 
the  visitor  wonders  at  its  tawdriness  ;  next  he  feels  its  cold¬ 
ness,  and  then  he  is  impressed  by  the  dominating  importance 
given  to  the  Virgin  Mother,  and  the  inf erior  position  assigned 
to  the  Son.  This  is  so  in  all  the  Catholic  churches  of  South 
America.  Over  the  great  altars  always  may  be  seen  some 
huge  and  coarse  representation . of  Mary.  She  is  dressed  after 
the  modern  style,  in  some  rich  material  and  an  abundance  of 
lace.  The  stiff  wax  form  and  awkward  wax  hands  would 
make  a  sad  appearance  in  a  collection  of  wax-figures  like  the 
moral  show  of  Artemus  Ward.  The  form  of  the  Saviour  is 
pushed  away  off  to  one  side  in  some  obscure  alcove.  The  su¬ 
premacy  of  Mary  in  these  papal  lands  is  wrought  into  all  the 
life  of  the  people.  She  has  every  sort  of  name.  Every  con¬ 
ceivable  relation  in  the  Virgin’s  life  is  named,  and  that  name 
bestowed  upon  men  and  women  alike.  There  is  “  Maria  Re¬ 
media  ” — that  is,  Mary  of  Remedies ;  “  Maria  Dolores,”  Mary 
of  Griefs;  “Maria  Angustos,”  Mary  of  Anguish;  “Maria 
Concepcion,”  Mary  of  the  Conception ;  “  Maria  Mercedes,” 
Mary  of  Mercy;  “Maria  Anunciacion,”  Mary  of  Annuncia¬ 
tion  ;  “  Maria  Presentacion,”  Mary  of  the  Presentation ;  “  Ma¬ 
ria  Carmen,”  Mary  of  Blood ;  “  Maria  Purificacion,”  Mary  of 
Purification ;  “  Maria  Trinidad,”  Mary  of  the  Trinity ;  “  Maria 
Asuncion,”  Mary  taken  from  earth ;  “  Maria  Transitu,”  Mary 
going  into  heaven — and  so  on  indefinitely.  In  the  Monte¬ 
video  cathedral,  and  in  many  others,  stands  a  statue  of  a 


G16 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


black  saint— St.  Baltazar— among  many  classes  of  people,  one 
of  the  important  saints  of  the  catalogue. 

Montevideo,  with  a  population  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
live  thousand,  has  twenty-three  daily  papers— more,  m  pro¬ 
portion  to  its  population,  than  any  other  city  m  the  world; 
three  times  as  many  as  London,  and  nearly  twice  as  many  as 
New  York  Buenos  Ayres  has  twenty-one  daily  papers  lor  a 
population  of  four  hundred  thousand.  Other  cities  in  South 
Ymerica  are  equally  blessed;  but  in  those  of  the  republics  of 
Ecuador,  Bolivia,  and  Paraguay  no  daily  papers  are  issued. 
The  South  American  papers  are  not  published  so  much  foi 
the  dissemination  of  news  as  for  the  propagation  of .  ideas. 
They  give  about  six  columns  of  editorial  to  one  of  intelli¬ 
gence,  and  publish  all  sorts  of  communications  on  political 
subjects,  furnish  a  story  in  each  issue,  and  often  run  histones 
and  biographies  as  serials.  One  frequently  takes  up  a  daily 
paper  and  finds  in  it  everything  but  the  news,  so  that  last 
week’s  issue  is  just  as  good  reading  as  yesterday  s. 

The  principal  reason  and  necessity  for  having  so  many 
newspapers  is  that  every  public  man  requires  an  organ  in 
order  to  get  his  views  before  the  people.  The  editors  are 
linariB-  politicians  or  publicists,  who  devote  their  entire ^tnne 
to  the  discussion  of  political  questions,  and  expect  the  party 
or  faction  to  which  they  belong  to  furnish  them  with  the 
means  of  living  while  they  are  so  employed.  Each  of  the 
papers  has  a  director,  who  holds  the  relation  of  editor-in-chief, 
L!l  a  sub-editor,  who  is  a  man-of-all-work.  edits  copy  looks 
after  the  news,  reads  proof,  and  stays  around  the  place  to  see 
that  the  printers  are  kept  busy.  There  is  never  a  staff  of  ed¬ 
itors  or  reporters  as  in  the  United  States,  and  seldom  more 
than  two  men  in  an  office.  The  director  usually  has  some 
other  occupation.  He  may  be  a  lawyer  or  a  judge,  or  a  mem¬ 
ber  of  Congress,  and  he  expects  his  political  sympathizers  to 

assist  him  in  furnishing  editorials.  , 

\t  the  capital  of  each  of  the  republics  in  Central  and  South 
America  there  are  usually  one  or  more  publications  supported 
by  the  Government  for  the  promulgation  of  decrees,  decisions 


MONTEVIDEO. 


617 


of  the  courts,  laws  of  Congress,  and  official  reports;  and 
usually  the  paper  which  sustains  the  Administration  that  hap¬ 
pens  to  be  in  power  expects  and  receives  financial  assistance, 
or  a  “  subvention,”  as  it  is  called,  from  the  Government.  This 
comes  in  the  form  of  sinecures  to  the  editors,  who  receive  gen¬ 
erous  salaries  from  the  public  treasury  for  their  political  and 
professional  services.  Every  president  or  cabinet  minister, 
every  political  leader,  every  governor  of  a  province,  every  jefe 
polico  (mayor  of  a  city),  and  often  a  collector  of  customs,  bus 
his  organ,  and,  if  he  is  not  the  editor  himself,  sees  that  who¬ 
ever  acts  in  that  capacity  is  paid  by  the  tax-payers. 

Except  in  Montevideo,  Buenos  Ayres,  Santiago,  Valparaiso, 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  other  of  the  larger  and  more  enterprising 
cities,  there  are  no  regular  hours  of  publication ;  but  papers 
are  issued  at  any  time,  from  eight  o’clock  in  the  morning 
until  ten  at  night,  whenever  they  happen  to  be  ready  to  go 
to  press.  It  seems  odd  to  have  yesterday’s  paper  delivered 
to  you  in  the  afternoon  of  to-day,  but  it  often  occurs.  As 
soon  as  enough  matter  to  fill  the  forms  is  in  type,  the  edition 
goes  to  press.  In  the  cities  mentioned  and  some  others  there 
is  a  good  deal  of  journalistic  enterprise  and  ability ;  news  is 
gathered  by  the  editors — there  is  no  reporter  in  all  Span¬ 
ish  America.  Telegraphic  despatches  are  received  and  pub¬ 
lished,  including  cablegrams  from  Europe  furnished  by  the 
Havas  Hews  Agency ;  news  correspondence  regarding  current 
events  comes  from  the  interior  towns  and  cities ;  meetings  are 
reported,  fights  and  frolics  are  written  up  in  graphic  style, 
and  even  interviews  have  been  introduced  to  a  limited  extent. 
The  newspapers  of  Valparaiso  and  Buenos  Ayres  are  the  most 
enterprising  and  ably  conducted,  El  Comer cio,  of  the  former 
city,  and  La  Nacion ,  of  the  latter,  ranking  well  beside  the  pro¬ 
vincial  papers  of  Europe. 

The  editors  of  papers  in  the  tropics  are  seldom  called  upon 
to  report  fires,  as  they  are  of  rare  occurrence.  The  houses 
are  practically  fire-proof,  being  built  of  adobe,  and  roofed 
with  tiles.  Ho  stoves  are  used,  and  as  there  are  no  chimneys 
such  a  thing  as  a  defective  flue  is  unknown.  All  the  cooking 


618 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


is  done  upon  an  arrangement  like  a  blacksmith’s  forge,  and 
charcoal  is  the  only  fuel  used.  The  delight  of  the  South 
American  editor  is  a  street  fight,  and  although  an  account  of 
it  may  not  appear  for  several  days  after  the  occurrence,  the 
writer  gives  his  whole  soul  to  its  description.  It  is  always 
recorded  in  the  most  elaborate  and  flamboyant  manner.  The 
following  is  a  literal  translation  of  the"  opening  of  one  of 
these  articles : 

“  A  personal  encounter  of  the  most  transcendent  and  pain¬ 
ful  interest  occurred  day  before  yesterday  in  the  street  of  the 
Twenty -fifth  of  May,  near  the  palatial  residence  of  the  most 
excellent  and  illustrious  Seiior  Don  Comana,  member  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  was  witnessed  by  a  grand  concourse 
of  people,  whose  excitement  and  demonstrations  it  is  impos¬ 
sible  to  adequately  describe.” 

A  dog-fight  or  any  other  event  of  interest  would  be  treated 
in  the  same  manner.  Everything  is  “  transcendent,”  every¬ 
thing  is  “  surpassing.”  The  grandiloquent  style  of  writing, 
which  appears  everywhere,  is  not  confined  to  newspapers, 
nor  to  orations,  but  you  find  it  in  the  most  unsuspected 
places.  For  example,  in  a  bath-room  at  a  hotel  I  once  found 
an  aviso  which,  literally  translated,  read  as  follows : 

“  In  consequence  of  the  grand  concourse  of  distinguished 
guests  who  entreat  a  bath  in  the  morning,  and  with  the  pro¬ 
found  consideration  for  the  convenience  of  all,  it  is  humbly 
and  respectfully  requested  by  the  management  that  the  gen¬ 
tlemen  will  be  so  courteous  and  urbane  as  to  occupy  the 
shortest  possible  time  for  their  ablutions,  and  that  they  will 
be  so  condescending  as  to  pull  out  the  plug  while  they  are  re¬ 
suming  their  garments.” 

Papers  often  quote  from  one  another.  They  select  their 
news  as  ship-builders  select  their  timber— when  it  is  old  and 
tough.  Compositors  are  not  paid  by  the  thousand  ems,  as  in 
the  United  States,  but  receive  weekly  wages,  which  are  sel¬ 
dom  more  than  eight  or  ten  dollars.  Six  or  seven  compositors 
are  a  sufficient  force  for  the  largest  office,  as  the  type  used  is 
seldom  smaller  than  brevier,  and  more  often  long  primer. 


MONTEVIDEO. 


619 


The  printers  are  mostly  natives,  although  a  few  Germans  are 
to  be  found.  There  are  no  typographical  unions  or  trade  or¬ 
ganizations  in  South  America.  The  laborers  and  mechanics 
are  called  peons,  and  are  in  a  state  of  bondage,  although  not 
so  recognized  by  law.  In  the  larger  cities  the  papers  are  de¬ 
livered  by  carriers,  and  sold  by  newsboys  on  the  streets  ;  but 
in  the  smaller  towns  they  are  sent  to  the  correo ,  or  post-office, 
to  be  called  for,  like  other  mail,  by  the  subscribers.  The  price 
of  subscription  is  inordinately  large,  being  seldom  less  than 
twelve  dollars  per  year,  and  often  double  that  amount ;  and 
single  copies  cost  ten  cents  in  native  money,  which  will  aver¬ 
age  about  seven  and  a  half  cents  in  American  gold.  The  pa¬ 
per  which  has  the  largest  circulation  in  South  America  is  La 
LTacion,  of  Buenos  Ayres,  which  is  said  to  circulate  thirty 
thousand  copies ;  but  twelve  or  fifteen  hundred  copies  is  con¬ 
sidered  a  fair  circulation  for  the  ordinary  daily. 

Most  of  the  offices  are  very  cheaply  fitted  up.  A  dress  of 
type  lasts  many  years,  and  stereotyping  is  almost  unknown. 
The  presses  used  are  the  old-fashioned  elbow-joint  kind,  such 
as  were  in  vogue  in  the  United  States  forty  years  ago.  In 
Chili  and  the  Argentine  Republic  there  are  some  cylinder 
presses  run  by  steam ;  but  the  people  generally  through  the 
continent  are  very  far  behind  the  times  in  the  typographic 
art.  Modern  equipments  might  be  introduced  very  easily, 
but  the  printers  down  there  know  nothing  about  them,  and 
when  a  perfecting  press  that  cuts  and  folds  is  described  to 
them,  they  are  apt  to  accept  the  story  as  a  North  American 
exaggeration. 

The  advertising  patronage  is  very  good  nearly  everywhere, 
particularly  that  of  the  Government  organs ;  but  small  rates 
are  paid,  and  the  rural  system  of  “  trading  out  ”  is  practised 
to  a  considerable  extent.  The  same  patent  medicine  “  ads.” 
that  are  familiar  to  the  readers  of  the  newspapers  in  the 
United  States  appear  in  the  South  American  journals,  and 
are  eagerly  scanned  by  homesick  travellers,  although  they 
look  very  odd  in  Spanish,  and  usually  can  only  be  recognized 
by  trade-marks  and  other  well-known  signs.  Most  of  the 


620 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


A  ery  few  Posterb  °  t  uged  his  brush  so  extensively 

patent  medicine  hen  ‘  TTriited  States.  Kot 

upon  the  fences  and  dead  walls  as  their 

long  ago  the  manufaoturers  o  M  t  1  d  advertising 

a8Wr  «  and  the  druggist  to 

wTom  th“  -signed  was  obliged  to  pay  a  heavy  penal- 

Z  ttZ  Hh 

political  excite  men  ,  .  *  Avinter  the  Secretary  of  the 

meats  upon  public  affa  ■ ^  ican  blics  abscond- 

Trejisury  of  one  of  Spams  expiration  of  his 

«’  X  AL^t™to  organs  contained  no  allu- 

term  ot  oihce.  Opposition  paper  announced  it  m 

sion  to  the  event,  h  _  _  ti,o  Treasury  on  Saturday  last  was 
this  innocent  language  .  rm  t  of  Minister  Pena,  of 

the  scene  of  a  violent  raid  <*«*£** ^ 
the  Treasury  Department  ®  the  money  that  was 

lat  n  the — »d f  "d/0X  casMer.  he  car 
in  the  vaults.  In  spite  oi  x  1  d  t  nine  thousand 

r;i  wrz*  »-«« <* 

dollars.  It  was  me  nrocedure  are  un- 

weo  motives  that  prompted  the  proceuuio 

known,  and  the  disposition  of  the  money  has  not  een  ex- 

V'T*1'-"  nf  the  republics  there  is  a  censor  of  the  press,  to 
In  some  of  the  tkm  is  submitted  before  it  is  pub- 

whom  a  copy  of  each  .  and  aela V  at  times, 

lished.  This  causes  some  moouvemenceMd  de  y  &  ^ 

for  if  the  censor  happens  o  is  withheld  until  his 

party,  or  otherwise  enga  ^  upon  each  page  of  the 

co^libSitted  to  him.  Th^°P^fcrSes  troubk. ?  In 

an 


MONTEVIDEO. 


621 


attack  upon  the  Congress  of  that  republic,  which  was  very 
mild  compared  with  articles  that  are  frequently  directed  at 
our  law-makers ;  but  it  was  considered  a  sufficient  reason  for 
his  imprisonment  for  sis  months,  and  the  confiscation  of  his 
machinery,  type,  etc.,  which  were  sold  for  the  benefit  of  the 
Government. . 

The  most  popular  names  for  the  newspapers  in  South 
America  are  La  Revista  (The  Review),  La  Nacion  (The  Ra¬ 
tion),  La  Republica  (The  Republic),  La  Tribuna  (The  Tribune), 
La  Libertad  (The  Liberty),  La  Voce  (The  Voice),  La  Union 
(The  Union),  El  Tempo  (The  Times),  El  Diario  (The  Diary), 
El  Eco  (The  Echo),  El  Correo  (The  Post),  El  Puebla  (The 
People),  La  Verdad  (The  Truth).  There  is  a  habit  of  naming 
streets  and  parks  and  towns  in  honor  of  great  events,  and 
this  sometimes  includes  newspapers.  For  example,  there  is  a 
daily  in  Montevideo  called  The  Twenty -fifth  of  May ,  which 
corresponds  to  our  Fourth  of  July — the  Independence-day  of 
that  republic.  There  are  only  three  dailies  printed  in  the 
English  language  in  all  Central  and  South  America.  Two 
of  them  are  published  in  Buenos  Ayres — The  Herald  and  The 
Standard — the  other  at  Panama  —  The  Star  am,d  LLerald. 
There  is  a  weekly  printed  in  English  at  Valparaiso,  and 
there  was  formerly  one  at  Callao,  Peru,  but  it  was  suspended 
during  the  war  and  its  publication  has  not  been  resumed. 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  “  Liebig’s  Extract  of  Beef,” 
which,  like  quinine,  is  a  standard  tonic  throughout  the  world, 
and  is  used  by  every  physician,  in  every  hospital,  on  every 
ship,  and  in  every  army,  is  a  product  of  Uruguay.  The  cans 
in  which  it  comes  are  labelled  as  if  their  contents  were  man¬ 
ufactured  at  Antwerp,  where  the  original  extract  was  invent¬ 
ed  by  Professor  Liebig,  the  famous  German  chemist,  and  the 
preparation  was  formerly  made  there ;  but  in  1866,  the  pat¬ 
ent  having  passed  into  the  control  of  an  English  company, 
the  works  were  removed  to  Uruguay,  where  cattle  are  cheaper 
than  elsewhere,  and  the  entire  supply  is  now  produced  at  a 
place  called  Fray  Bentos,  about  one  hundred  and  seventy 
miles  above  Montevideo,  on  the  Uruguay  River,  whence  it  is 


622 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


shipped  in  bulk  to  London  and  Antwerp,  where  it  is  packed 
in  small  tins  for  the  market.  An  attempt  was  made  to  do 
the  packing  in  Uruguay,  but  the  Government  of  that  republic 
imposed  so  high  a  tariff  upon  the  tins  that  the  scheme  was 
abandoned.  The  chemical  process  by  which  the  juice  of  the 
beef  is  extracted  and  mixed  with  the  blood  of  the  animal  is 
supposed  to  be  a  secret,  but  as  the  patent  has  long  since  ex¬ 
pired,  it  could  be  easily  discovered,  and  thus  the  manufacture 
of  an  almost  necessary  article  would  become  general. 


ASUNCION. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  PARAGUAY. 

The  population  of  Paraguay  and  its  products  to-day  are 
less  than  they  were  one  hundred  years  ago,  when  the  present 
half-ruined  city  was  the  capital  of  the  southern  half  of  the 
continent,  and  from  it  had  been  issued  the  ecclesiastical  and 
vice-regal  edicts  for  over  two  centuries.  Then  Asuncion  was 
a  gay  and  busy  capital,  and  Buenos  Ayres,  with  the  rest  of 
the  continent,  paid  tribute  to  the  viceroy  there.  After  the 
war  of  independence,  a  Jesuit  by  the  name  of  Francia  secured 
control  of  the  Government,  and  nothing  but  death  was  ever 
able  to  loosen  his  grip.  Although  the  constitution  was  re¬ 
publican,  Francia  established  himself  as  “Perpetual  Presi¬ 
dent,”  maintained  a  despotism  as  absolute  and  cruel  as  any 
that  ever  existed,  and  erected  around  the  country  a  wall  that 
prevented  immigration  and  kept  the  people  in  ignorance. 
Foreign  commerce  was  monopolized  by  the  President,  and  he 
exacted  in  the  shape  of  tribute  from  the  people  the  prod¬ 
ucts  he  shipped  away.  The  revenues  of  the  Government 
went  into  his  pocket,  and  public  expenditures  were  made  at 
his  will.  His  policy  seemed  to  be  to  isolate  Paraguay  from 
the  rest  of  the  world,  for  the  good  of  its  people ;  and  being 
a  religious  fanatic,  he  taught  them  nothing  but  obedience  to 
the  will  of  the  Church.  For  thirty-two  years  he  ruled  peace¬ 
fully,  and  when  he  died,  in  1840,  he  was  sincerely  mourned. 

His  successor  was  Lopez  I.,  a  man  who  had  all  the  bad 
qualities  of  Francia,  but  none  of  his  good  ones.  Selfish,  lust¬ 
ful,  brutal,  his  only  motive  was  to  perpetuate  his  power,  and 
enjoy  the  opportunities  it  gave  for  the  gratification  of  his 
passions.  He  continued  the  policy  of  exclusion  which  Francia 


624 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


GASPAR  FRAN CIA, 
First  President  of  Paraguay. 


inaugurated,  but  for  entirely  different  reasons,  considering  it 
necessary  for  his  own  safety  that  the  people  should  be  kept  ig¬ 
norant  and  isolated,  lest  they  might  learn  that  there  were  jus¬ 
tice  and  liberty  elsewhere  in  the  world.  He  ruled  twenty- 
two  years,  until  death  took  the  sceptre  from  him  and  gave 
it  to  his  son. 

If  the  father  was  bad.  the  son  was  worse,  and  Lopez  II. 
seemed  to  be  inspired  with  an  ambition  to  excel  his  sire  in 
every  crime  the  latter  had  been  guilty  of.  Filled  with  pas¬ 
sion  and  lust,  there  was  no  form  of  cruelty  he  did  not  prac¬ 
tise,  and  no  act  of  brutality  that  he  did  not  commit.  He 


ASUNCION. 


625 


murdered  his  mother  and  brother,  like  King  Thebaw,  lest 
they  might  conspire  against  his  authority.  He  had  men 
pulled  to  pieces  by  horses,  and  invented  a  form  of  capital 
punishment  before  unknown  to  the  catalogue  of  horrors. 
People  who  offended  him  were  sewed  up  in  green  hides,  which 
were  hung  up  before  a  fire  to  dry.  As  the  hides  dried  they 
shrunk,  and  the  victim  was  slowly  crushed  to  death  by  a 
pressure  that  human  bones  and  flesh  could  not  resist.  The 
wives  and  daughters  of  his  subjects  were  his  playthings,  and 
his  agents  were  busy  in  all  parts  of  the  country  collecting  beau¬ 
tiful  maidens  to  sacrifice  to  his  lust.  He  resisted  immigra¬ 
tion,  and,  like  his  two  predecessors,  kept  the  foreign  commerce 
of  the  country  in  his  own  hands.  When  steamers  began  to 
ascend  the  Parana  River,  he  chained  logs  together  and  ob¬ 
structed  navigation,  and  when  foreigners  entered  the  coun¬ 
try  he  drove  them  out. 

The  only  outlet  for  the  interior  provinces  of  Southern  Bra¬ 
zil  is  through  Paraguay,  and  the  people  of  Brazil  resented 
the  obstruction  to  their  commerce.  The  Argentine  Republic 
and  Uruguay  also  had  grievances,  and  in  1868  the  three  great 
nations,  representing  about  half  the  population  of  South  Amer¬ 
ica,  called  the  tyrant  Lopez  to  account.  Then  began  a  war 


40 


STREET  IN  ASUNCION. 


G26 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


which  has  no  parallel  in  history.  For  six  long  years  the  Ut- 

!  State  of  Paraguay  held  at  bay  the  three  combined  na- 
tie  otate  ox  x  cu air]  not  end 
tinT1s  iV hose  territory  surrounded  it.  The  war  clici  nor  ei 
tions  no.  -  wellnigh  exterminated, 

tyrant  Lopez  driven to -the 
mountains;  where  he  was  finally  killed  in  a  cave  m  which  he 


LOPEZ,  THE  TYRANT. 


soiHit  retime  The  war  cost  Brazil,  the  Argentine  Republic, 
amUJniguay  two  hundred  and  fifty  million  doUa™  “d  tu  en- 
tv  thousand  lives,  while  it  cost  Paraguay  eveiythm  .  The 
were  scarcelv  enough  survivors  to  bury  the  dead  The  en 
countrv  was  practically  destroyed  and  depopulated. 


ASUNCION. 


627 


During  the  reign  of  the  two  Lopezes,  father  and  son,  the 
most  intelligent  and  the  best  men  in  the  country  were  ban¬ 
ished.  Exile  was  the  penalty  of  all  whose  views  differed 
from  those  of  the  tyrant,  and  who  would  not  submit  to  his  ex¬ 
actions.  More  were  murdered  than  banished,  and  their  fam¬ 
ilies  fled  from  the  country.  On  the  downfall  of  the  despot 
the  exiles  returned  with  enlarged  intelligence,  broader  views, 
and  an  education  received  in  foreign  lands  which  fitted  them 
to  restore  their  almost  ruined  country,  and  to  establish  some¬ 
thing  like  a  liberal  and  wise  government.^ After  the  death 
of  Lopez  and  the  occupation  of  the  country  by  the  allied 
armies,  a  junta  was  formed,  consisting  of  three  citizens  of 


AFTER  THE  WAR. 


Paraguay,  two  of  whom  had  returned  from  banishment,  and 
had  taken  part  in  the  war  against  the  tyrant.  Their  powers 
were  provisional,  and  similar  to  those  of  the  consuls  of  old 
Rome.  These  men  called  a  constitutional  convention,  which 
organized  a  permanent  government,  based  upon  the  plan  of 
that  of  the  United  States.  The  constitution  guarantees  relig¬ 
ious  and  civil  liberty,  security  of  person  and  property,  pro¬ 
hibits  the  re-election  of  Presidents,  endows  the  Congress  with 


t>28 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


authority  much  more 
extended  than  that  of 
Gin’s,  and  in  every  pos¬ 
sible  manner  provides 
against  the  repetition 
of  the  old  dictator¬ 
ships. 

One  of  the  first  steps 
taken  by  Congress  was 
to  encourage  immiffra- 
tion,  and  agents  were 
sent  to  Europe  to  or¬ 
ganize  colonies  and  of¬ 
fer  inducements  to  set¬ 
tlers.  There  was  a 
>  strong  effort  made  to 

'£  secure  German  colo¬ 

nies,  but  it  was  difficult 
g  to  divert  them  from 

the  United  States.  In 

fa 

2  Italy  and  the  Basque 

g  provinces  of  Spain  the 

"  emigrant  agents  were 

more  successful,  and 
about  twenty  thousand 
people  from  these 
countries  have  settled 
in  Paraguay  during  the 
last  four  years.  Their 
prosperity  and  the 
treatment  they  have 
received  have  been  so 
encouraging  that  a 
steady  stream  of  im¬ 
migration  is  now  flow¬ 
ing  from  all  the  Euro¬ 
pean  States  towards 


ASUNCION. 


629 


Paraguay ;  and  the 
German  Government 
has  lately  sent  a  com¬ 
mission  to  explore  the 
territory  and  report 
upon  its  advantages 
for  the  establishment 
of  colonies.  Liberal  in¬ 
ducements  are  offered 
to  all  immigrants.  The 
lands  of  the  republic 
have  been  resurveyed 
and  divided  into  three 
classes — timber,  pasto¬ 
ral,  agricultural.  At 
the  end  of  five  years’ 
residence,  each  adult 
immigrant  is  entitled 
to  a  deed  of  eighty 
acres  of  the  latter  class 
as  a  gift  from  the 
Government,  and  is 
reimbursed  from  the 
public  revenues  to  an 
amount  equal  to  the 
cost  of  his  passage  to 
Asuncion,  the  neces¬ 
sary  farming  imple¬ 
ments,  and  a  yoke  of 
cattle.  In  addition  to 
these  he  has  also  the 
right  to  purchase  not 
more  than  four  extra 
lots  of  agricultural 
lands  of  forty  acres 
each.  The  grazing 
lands  are  not  given 


030 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


away  but  are  sold  by  the  Government  at  the  price  of  eight, 
twelve  and  fifteen  hundred  dollars  per  square  league,  ac¬ 
cording  to  location,  or  are  leased  for  a  term  of  years  at  a 
nominal  rental.  The  timber  lands  are  sold  at  higher  rates, 
but  as  yet  there  is  little  demand  for  them.  The  emigrants 
from  Continental  Europe  usually  settle  upon  the  agricultural 
lands,  but  large  areas  of  the  pampas  are  being  taken  up  by 
English,  Irish,  and  Scotch,  some  of  whom  purchase  upon  then- 
own  account,  while  others  represent  companies  of  considera¬ 
ble  capital.  The  British  wifi  soon  monopolize  the  pastorai  in¬ 
dustries  of  the  La  Plata  countries,  and  Paraguay  will  be  full 

'  *  An 'enumeration  made  of  his  subjects  by  Lope2 s  in  1857 
showed  the  population  of  Paraguay  to  be  1,337,439;  at  the 
close  of  the  war  in  1873,  a  census  demonstrated  that  this 
number  had  been  reduced  to  221,079  souls  of  whom  only 
28  746  were  men,  106,254  were  women  over  fifteen  years  of 
’e  and  80,079  were  children,  the  enormous  disproportion  be¬ 
tween  the  sexes,  as  well  as  the  vast  decrease  of  population^ 
tellino-  the  results  of  the  war.  In  1876  there  weie  -• 
inhabitants,  showing  an  increase  of  72,76o  m  three  years , 
in  1879  the  total  was  increased  to  348,048,  two-thirc  s  o 
adults  beino-  women.  It  is  said  that  there  are  but  three  cti- 
"  heVnitea  States  in  Para^y-ne 
keeps  a  drug  store,  and  two  negroes,  both  of  nhom  aie 

norted  to  be  fugitives  from  justice.  .  .  . 

P  The  Rio  do  la  Plata,  or  the  River  Plate,  as  it  -s  better 
known,  is  the  widest  stream  in  the  world  and.  with  the  e  ^ 
ception  of  the  Amazon,  empties  more  water  into  the  oce< 
other,  draining  a  region  of  1,560,000  square  mles. 
With  its  tributaries,  it  affords  more  miles  of  nav,^tn>n^ha 

u"a  distance  of  two  hundred  and  fifty-eight  unto  and  thee 
is  a  depth  of  water  sufficient  to  carry  vessels  of  t«  ent J  -fou 
feet  draught  one  thousand  miles  into  the  mtcrior 

Above  the  mouth  of  the  Uruguay  River,  which  foi  ms 


ASUNCION. 


631 


WRECK  OP  THE  OLD  CATHEDRAL. 


boundary  line  between  the  republic  of  that  name  and  the  Ar¬ 
gentine  Republic,  the  River  Plate  is  known  as  the  Parana, 
and  is  so  called  as  far  as  its  source,  wrhich  lies  not  far  from 
that  of  the  Amazon  in  the  interior  of  Brazil,  and  is  fed 
through  a  thousand  channels  by  the  rains  of  the  tropics  and 


632 


HIE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  melting  snows  of  the  Cordilleras.  The  Parana  flows  for 
one  thousand  two  hundred  miles  through  a  country— the  in¬ 
terior  of  Brazil— that  has  never  been  explored,  and  is  inhab¬ 
ited  bv  a  race  of  savages  who  have  so  far  resisted  all  attempts 
to  invade  their  domain.  As  far  as  the  river  has  been  ex¬ 
plored  it  is  deep  enough  for  navigation,  although  at  present 
the  steamers  only  run  to  Cuyaba,  a  distance  of  2o00  miles. 

At  Corrientes  the  Paraguay  River  enters  the  1  arana,  and  the 
two  great  streams  form  the  western  and  eastern  boundaries 
of  the  republic.  At  Asuncion  the  Paraguay  divides  again, 
the  main  stream  flowing  through  the  centre  of  the  State,  and 
the  Pilcomayo  continuing  as  its  western  boundary.  T lie  ai- 
ao-uay  River  is  navigable  for  1200  miles,  and  the  1  ilcomayo 
for  nearly  as  great  a  distance,  almost  to  the  mountains  ot 
Bolivia.  The  chief  affluents  of  the  Pilcomayo  are  the  1  ilaya 
and  Paspava;  and  the  only  city  on  its  banks  is  Chuquisaca. 
With  the  removal  of  obstructions  which  offer  no  obstacles  to 
engineering  skill,  it  is  said  that  the  Pilcomayo  might  be  put 
in  such  shape  as  to  afford  an  easy  and  convenient  outlet  foi 
the  products  of  Bolivia  to  the  Atlantic  ports,  and  instiga¬ 
tions  are  already  in  progress  looking  to  that  end. 

Whoever  obtains  control  of  these  natural  knee  of ^mmmu- 
cation,  and  supplements  them  by  railways,  will  hold  the  key 
to  the  treasures  of  the  heart  of  South  America,  whose  value 
has  furnished  food  for  three  centuries  of  fable.  A  section  o 
count rv  as  large  as  that  which  lies  between  the  Mississippi 
River  and  the  Rockv  Mountains  lies  there  practically  unex¬ 
plored.  On  its  borders  are  rich  agricultural  kinds  ^ 
unmeasured  resources  of  timber,  the  diamond-fields  of  Bi  .  z»l 
and  the  gold  and  silver  mines  of  Bolivia  and  ieiu  • 

exists  in  the  unknown  region  is  a  matter  of  speculation,  but 
the  farther  man  has  gone  the  greater  has  been  his  wonte 
The  tales  of  explorers  who  have  attempted  to  penetrate  it 
sound  like  a  recital  of  the  old  romances  of  Golconda  am(  El 
Dorado-  but  the  swamps  and  the  mountains,  the  nvers  that 
cannot  be  forded,  and  the  jungles  which  forbid  its  search  the 
absence  of  food,  and  the  difficulty  of  carrying  supplies,  with 


ASUNCION. 


633 


the  other  obstacles  which  now  prevent  exploration,' will  be 
overcome  eventually,  and  the  secret  which  has  tantalized 
the  world  for  three  centuries  will  be  disclosed  by  scientists. 
Almost  every  year  expeditions  are  sent  into  the  wilderness 
by  the  Government  of  the  Argentine  Republic,  and  each  one 
goes  farther  than  the  last,  so  that  the  prospect  of  a  thorough 
exploration  is  encouraging. 

The  commerce  of  Paraguay  is  small,  although  rapidly  in¬ 
creasing,  and  at  present  is  absorbed  in  that  of  Uruguay  and 
the  Argentine  Republic.  There  is  one  railroad  in  the  coun¬ 
try,  which  was  built  by  Lopez  II.  for  the  transportation  of 
troops,  and  runs  a  distance  of  forty -live  miles,  from  Asuncion 
to  Paraguay,  an  interior  town  of  some  importance.  In  1877 


STATION  ON  THE  ASUNCION  RAILWAY. 


the  railroad  was  sold  to  an  English  corporation  for  a  lhillion 
dollars,  but  has  not  been  well  maintained.  A  street-car  line 
connects  the  railway-station  with  the  steamboat  landing  at 
Asuncion.  There  are  two  lines  of  steamers  to  Asuncion,  one 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


from  Buenos  Ayres  and  one  from  Montevideo.  It ,  is  a  ym 
neT  of  1700  miles,  and  usually  requires  about  fifteen  days,  a 

the  stops  along  the  route  are  numerous,  and  a  great  deal  of 
the  stops  cuuu0  thne  is  taken  up  m  load¬ 

ing  and  unloading.  The 
steamers  on  this  route  are 
as  good  as  any  that  ever 
floated  upon  the  Mississip¬ 
pi  River,  and  are  fitted  up 
in  t lie  most  elegant  style. 
They  compete  actively  for 
passengers  and  furnish  ex¬ 
cellent  meals  and  accom¬ 
modations.  One  line  sails 
under  the  French  flag,  and 
the  other  belongs  to  an 
Argentine  company. 

The  Government  is 
making  an  honest  and  pa¬ 
tient  effort  to  educate  and 
enlighten  the  people,  and 
in  comparison  with  its 
A  visit  TO  TUE  spiuno.  poverty  and  scanty  reve¬ 

nues  is  expending  a  large  amount  of  money  in  maintaining 
,  ^’tem  of  free° schools;  but  until  teachers  are  imported 
from  abroad  little  progress  will  be  made,  as  the  native  in- 

Th“^rmethen  tyranny  of  Lopez  to  the  present  lib- 

eral,  enlightened,  and  progressive  administration  'ias_as  siu 

i  n  on.l  n dical  as  a  change  from  darkness  to  light,  ihe  peo 
vie  have. ' accepted  t he  blessings  with  a  genuine  appreeiation 
o  tlmlr  value,  and  have  devoted  themselves  assiduously  to 
the  restoration  of  then-  country,  and  are  happy  in  the  enjoy 

m  The’Vresident  of  the  republic  is  Dr.  Caballaro.  a  man  of 
education  and  broad  intellect.  He  has  traveUed  in  Europe, 
and  dmTng  the  reign  of  Lopez  II.  was  an  exile,  spending  most 


ASUNCION. 


635 


of  his  time  in  the  Argentine  Republic.  He  has  a  Cabinet  of 
three  ministers,  and  his  Secretary  of  State  was  educated  in 
the  Methodist  Mission  at  Buenos  Ayres.  The  latter  gentle¬ 
man  is  a  Protestant,  understands  English  well,  and  is  a  man 
of  the  most  progressive  ideas.  It  is  largely  owing  to  his 


THE  PARAGUAYANS  AT  HOME. 


efforts  that  Paraguay  is  making  such  rapid  progress ;  and  as 
he  is  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  Government,  he  will  probably 
be  the  next  President. 

The  people  are  quiet,  submissive,  and  industrious,  having  a 
mixture  of  Spanish  blood  and  that  of  the  Guarani  Indians, 
who  were  the  aboriginal  settlers  of  the  country.  Their  kins¬ 
men  across  the  Paraguay  River,  in  the  Argentine  Republic, 
were  a  nomadic,  savage  tribe ;  but  the  tyranny  of  Lopez, 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


636 

,  thev  ;u.e  now  domesticated,  and  live  m  bamboo  huts, 
tbnte  the  soil  and  raise  cattle.  There  is  said  to  be  less  crnne 

• « is  skm 

people  are,  however,  rapidly 
learning  the  ways  of  the 
world  and  the  value  of  mon¬ 
ey.  The  men  and  women 
are  of  small  stature,  and  the 
latter  are  usually  very  pret¬ 
ty  when  young,  hut  lose  their 
beauty  of  feature  and  figure 
after  maternity.  They  are 
innocent,  and  childish  in 
their  amusements,  are  fond 
of  dancing  and  singing,  and 
have  native  dances  that  are 
as  graceful,  and  native  songs 
that  are  as  melodious,  as  are 
the  dances  and  music  of  the 
negroes  of  the  United  States. 

Asuncion,  the  capital  of 
the  republic,  is  the  oldest  set¬ 
tlement  in  what  is  known  as  the  ^erf  and.  itwas 

?CTe  TrcivT^T^rs  authority,  before  the  city  of 
Buenos  AyreTor  the  city  of  Kio  de  Janeiro  was  founded. 


PARAGUAY  FLOWER-GIRL. 


ASUNCION. 


637 


REMAINS  OF  THE  PALACE  OF  LOPEZ. 

There  was  a  time  when  Asuncion  was  the  greatest  city  in 
that  part  of  the  world,  being  the  seat  of  the  viceroys  of  Spain 
and  the  centre  of  a  great  commercial  business.  But  after  the 
independence  of  the  republic,  and  during  the  reign  of  the 
despots  Francia  and  Lopez,  father  and  son,  who  for  sixty 
years  exercised  despotic  sway  over  the  country,  all  immigra¬ 
tion  was  shut  out,  and  the  people  of  the  country  were  not 
permitted  to  leave  it  lest  they  should  learn  ideas  of  civiliza¬ 
tion  and  liberty  that  would  excite  them  to  revolution.  At 
that  time  Asuncion  was  a  city  of  seventy-five  thousand  inhab¬ 
itants,  but  during  the  war  it  was  almost  depopulated,  and 
three-fourths  of  the  buildings  are  now  in  ruins. 

In  all  tropical  countries  nature  soon  repairs  or  conceals  the 
traces  of  man’s  wanton  devastation.  Fields  corpse  -  strewn 
and  blood-bathed,  blackened  with  fire  and  trampled  by  the 
hoofs  of  cavalry  horses,  within  six  months’  time  wave  in  the 
golden  luxuriance  of  a  harvest ;  and  the  villages  of  the  peas- 


638 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


ants  built  of  bamboo  ami  palm-leaves,  are  quite  as  soon  re¬ 
stored.  Paraguay’s  rural  territory  sl,ows  no  signs  of the  nine 
years’  war  and  devastation;  but  in  Asuncion  and  other  cities 
,,  ,,,  ;s  different.  Its  soacious  edifices,  costly  churches, 

pnbUc  bings  arc  in  nuns.  Some  which  still  stand  are 
disused  and  deserted,  more  are  only  partially  occupied,  and 
are  in  a  state  of  half  neglect,  too  large  for  the  shrunken  popu¬ 
lace  •  others,  sad  monuments  of  the  vanity  of  the  Dictators, 
are  shattered  and  shamefully  defaced.  Whole  streets  are 
lined  by  empty  shells  of  what  were  once  costly  dwellings, 
with  here  and  there  open  gaps  that  tell  ot  the  pillage  and  de- 
vastation  that  follow  war. 

The  most  conspicuous  object  in  Asuncion  is  the  immense 
u-ilace  of  Lopez,  which  covered  four  acres,  and  was  completed 
L  an  enorm'ous  cost  of  money  and  labor,  wrung  from  an  u„- 
wi  hm  people  shortly  before  the  fall  of  the  tyrant.  It 
"  w  m,  empty,  rootless  shell,  towering,  like  one  of  the  ruined 
castles  Europe,  over  the  river.  With  its  long  rows  of  dis¬ 
mantled  windows  and  black,  ragged  holes,  it  is  as  ghastly  as 
the  eye-sockets  in  a  decaying  skull.  Its  shattered  towers, 
shivering  cornices,  and  broken  parapets  disclose  the  results 
of  a  three  weeks’  bombardment,  and  the  destruction  that  o  - 
lowed  its  capture.  The  Brazilian  plunderers  carried  off  all 
that  was  portable;  what  they  could  not  take  away  was 
burned  and  what  fire  would  not  consume  was  defaced.  T 
palace  is  said  to  have  cost  two  million  dollars,  and  was  built, 
exclusively  by  native  workmen.  The  men  are  very  skilful  in 
the  use  of  tools,  and  in  the  manufacture  of  gold  and  silver 
ornaments,  and  the  women  make  a  very  fine  lace  vrhich 
called  nanduty.  The  lace-making  art  was  taught  the  women 
bv  the  Spanish  nuns.  They  do  not  use  cotton  thread,  but 
the  very  fine  fibres  of  a  native  tree,  which  are  as  soft  and 
lustrous  as  silk.  Some  of  their  designs  are  very  beautiful. 
U  the  fabric  is  indestructible.  Lopez  had  his  chamber 
Vails  buno-  with  this  lace,  on  a  background  of  crimson  satin 
ami  the  pattern  was  an  imitation  of  the  finest  cobweb.  It 
is  said  to  have  required  the  work  of  two  hundred  women  for 


ASUNCION. 


639 


several  years  to  cover  the  walls,  and  that  every  one  of  those 
women  was  a  discarded  mistress  of  the  despot.  The  lace  is 
fastened  to  the  wall  by  clamps  of  solid  gold  of  the  most 
unique  workmanship.  There  are  four  hundred  of  these 
clamps,  each  worth  from  twelve  to  fifteen  dollars. 


INTERIOR  OF  THE  LOPEZ  PALACE. 


Near  by  the  palace  are  the  roofless  walls  of  a  spacious  un¬ 
finished  theatre,  an  example  of  Lopez’s  extravagance.  The 
cathedral,  and  the  Church  of  the  Incarnacion,  where  Francia 
sought,  but  did  not  find,  a  final  resting-place,  are  heavy,  un¬ 
graceful  constructions  of  Spanish  times.  Nor  have  the  Gov¬ 
ernment  buildings  —  many  of  which  sheltered  the  terrible 
Dictator,  for  he  continually  shifted  from  one  to  another, 
for  fear,  it  is  said,  of  assassination — any  pretension  to  beauty. 
Neither  are  the  remains  of  the  old  Jesuit  college,  now  con- 


640 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


verted  into  a  barrack,  anyway  remarkable.  The  streets,  wide 

"•  ■"  r 

d weUin ^-houses — at  least  such  of  them  as  are  constructed  on 

beauty.  They  have  cool  courts,  thick  walls,  de  l  5  d 

doors'  and  windows,  projecting  eaves,  and  heavy,  piotectc 

roofs. 


THE  CATHEDRAL,  ASUNCION. 


The  furniture  of  the  dwelling-houses  is  of  native. 


ASUNCION. 


641 


MARKET-PLACE  AT  ASUNCION. 


and  these  will,  when 
Paraguay  is  herself 
once  more,  take  a  high 
place  on  the  list  of  her 
productions  and  mer¬ 
chandise. 

The  majority  of  the 
houses  are  one-storied; 
but  in  some  localities, 

where  a  mania  for  European  imitation,  encouraged  by  Lopez, 
prevailed,  some  uncomfortable  and  ill-seeming  dwellings  of 
two  or  three  stories,  flimsy,  pretentious,  and  at  variance  alike 
with  the  climate  and  the  habits  of  the  people  of  Paraguay, 
have  been  erected. 

The  most  cheerful,  and  almost  the  only  active  part  of 


41 


042 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


Asuncion  is  the  market-place,  which  is  situated  near  the 
centre  of  the  town.  It  is  a  large  square  block  of  open  ar¬ 
cades  and  pillared  roofs,  to  which  the  natives  from  the  sub¬ 
urbs  daily  bring  their  produce,  intermixed  with  other  wares 

of  cheap  price  and  oi 
every-day  consumption, 
the  vendors  being  al¬ 
most  exclusively  wom¬ 
en.  Maize,  watermelons, 
gourds,  pumpkins,  or¬ 
anges,  mandioca  flour, 
sweet  potatoes,  half- 
baked  bread,  cakes,  bis¬ 
cuits,  and  sweets  —  the 
chief  articles  of  food — - 
are  here  offered  for  sale, 
together  with  tobacco 
of  dark  color  and  strong 
flavor,  and  yerba,  the 
dried  and  pulverized  leaf 
of  the  Paraguayan  tea. 
Alongside  of  these  are 
displayed  a  medley  of 
cheap  articles,  for  use 
or  ornament,  mostly  of 


A  PARAGUAY  HORSEMAN. 


European  manufacture ; 
and  here  may  be  found 


matches,  combs,  cigarette  paper,  pots  and  pans,  water-jars, 
rone  knives,  hatchets,  small  looking-glasses,  handkerchiefs, 
ponchos,  and  native  saddles  much  resembling  Turkish  ones^ 
which  are  very  comfortable  for  riding,  and  are  loaded  ruth 
cou-se  silver  ornaments.  But  the  chief  interest  of  the  scene 
is  the  study  of  the  buyers  and  sellers  themselves  Tim  men, 
who  mostly  belong  to  the  former  class,  are  from  the _vdlag 
round  about,  and  come  mounted  on  small,  rough-coated  homes, 
which  are  unclipped  of  mane  or  tail.  The  riders  dress  con¬ 
sists  of  a  pair  of  loose  cotton  drawers,  coarsely  embroidered 


ASUNCION. 


643 


or  fringed  with  lace,  and  over  them  and  around  the  waist  are 
many -folded  loin-cloths,  generally  of  white;  or  it  may  con¬ 
sist  of  a  pair  of  loose,  baggy  trousers,  much  like  those  worn 
by  the  Turkish  peasants,  and  girt  by  a  leather  belt  of  gener¬ 
ous  width.  These,  with  a  white  shirt  often  loaded  with 
lace,  and  over  all  a  striped  or  flowered  poncho,  complete  the 
dress.  Boots  are  rarely  worn,  and  the  bare  feet  are  some¬ 
times  equipped  with  immense  silver-plated  spurs.  The  feat¬ 
ures  and  build  of  the  riders  present  every  variety  of  type, 
from  the  light-complexioned,  brown-haired,  red-bearded,  hon¬ 
est  manliness  of  the  ancestral  Basque,  to  the  copper-hued, 
straight  black-haired,  narrow  dark  eyed,  beardless  chinned, 
flattened  nosed,  and  small  wiry  framed  aboriginal  Guarani. 

The  women  are  scantily,  and  in  more  civilized  countries 
would  be  considered  immodestly,  clad,  wearing  nothing  but  a 
white  tunic  of  native  cot¬ 
ton,  tied  around  the  waist 
with  a  girdle  of  some  gay 
color,  often  handsomely 
embroidered.  These  tun¬ 
ics  are  usually  fringed  at 
the  top  and  bottom  with 
native  lace,  and  are  al¬ 
ways  scrupulously  clean. 

Cleanliness  is  the  rule  in 
Paraguay,  and  it  extends 
to  everything  —  dwell¬ 
ings,  furniture,  clothes, 
and  person.  Each  house 
in  the  country  has  be¬ 
hind  it  a  garden,  small 
or  large,  as  the  case  may  Paraguay  belles. 

be,  in  which  flowers  are 

sedulously  cultivated.  Flowers  are  a  decoration  that  a  Para¬ 
guayan  girl  or  woman  is  rarely  without.  The  women  are 
pretty  and  often  handsome.  Dark  eyes,  long,  wavy,  dark 
hair,  and  a  brunette  complexion  most  prevail ;  but  the  blond 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


tvoe  with  blue  eves  ami  golden  curls,  indicative  of  Basque 
descent  is  by  no  means  rare.  Their  bauds  and  feet  are 
almost  universally  delicate  and  small,  and  their  forms,  at  least 


COSTUMES  OF  THE  INTERIOR. 


till  frequent  maternity  has  sacrificed  beauty  to  usefulness,  are 


ASUNCION. 


645 


they  are  as  honest  as  they  are  gentle.  A  brighter,  kinder, 
truer,  more  affectionate,  and  more  devotedly  faithful  person 
than  the  Paraguayan  girl  exists  nowhere.  The  women  are 
more  regardful  of  their  beauty  than  in  other  countries,  and 
the  Paraguayan  girl  is  never  without  a  bit  of  decoration, 
ear-rings,  a  necklace,  a  bunch  of  flowers,  or  something  of 
that  sort ;  but  they  all  smoke,  young  and  old. 


AN  INTERIOR  TOWN. 


Some  of  the  native  ceremonies  are  peculiar  and  beautiful. 
When  a  couple  are  married,  the  bridal  bed  is  always  covered 
with  flowers,  and  each  neighbor  contributes  something  tow¬ 
ards  giving  them  an  outfit,  even  if  it  is  nothing  but  a  wooden 
spoon  or  a  gourd  cup.  Their  funerals  are  conducted  after 
the  ordinary  formula  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  but  it 
is  customary  to  hold  a  sort  of  wake  over  the  dead,  as  in  Ire¬ 
land.  Their  market-days  occur  twice  a  week,  and  on  Sun¬ 
day  there  is  the  largest  gathering  and  the  greatest  display, 
the  people  coming  together  after  mass  in  the  morning,  and 
remaining  about  the  plaza  all  day,  enjoying  a  sort  of  festival 
which  invariably  closes  in  the  evening  with  a  dance.  The 
dances  are  usually  of  the  European  kind — quadrilles,  waltzes, 
polkas,  mazourkas,  and  lanciers,  interspersed  with  Paraguayan 


646 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


figures — the  cielo,  the  media  cana  (a  great  favorite,  and  very 
lively),  the  Montenero ,  and  some  variations  which  were  inher¬ 
ited  from  the  aboriginal  races.  Cigars,  cigarettes,  sweets, 
refreshments,  drinks — among  which  last  cana,  the  rum  of  the 
country,  comes  foremost — are  freely  distributed  in  the  inter¬ 
vals  of  the  dances,  and  the  ball  is  kept  up  till  morning  light. 


The  women,  seated  around  the  room,  each  waiting  her  turn  to 
dance,  while  the  men  gossip  in  groups  outside  the  door,  are 
dressed  in  Paraguayan  fashion,  with  the  long  white  tapoi,  or 
tunic,  which  is  deeply  embroidered  around  the  borders,  and  is 
often  fringed  with  the  beautiful  home-made  lace  of  the  coun¬ 
try  ;  sometimes  with  silk  skirts  or  brightly  colored  petticoats, 
and  a  broad  colored  sash ;  some  of  them  wearing  slippers, 
others  barefooted. 


HOME,  SWEET  nOME. 


ASUNCION. 


647 


The  country  about  Asuncion  is  the  very  perfection  of  quiet 
rural  beauty.  The  scenery  resembles  the  prettiest  parts  of 
New  England,  enhanced  by  the  richness  of  the  verdure  of 
the  palm-trees  with  which  the  whole  country  is  studded. 
The  cultivated  land  is  divided  into  fenced  fields,  wherein 
grow  maize,  mandioca,  and  sugar-cane,  and  the  cottages 
dotted  about  complete  the  pleasantness  of  the  picture.  There 
are  roads  in  every  direction-— not  kept  in  first-rate  condition, 


THE  MANDIOCA. 


but  still  good ;  the  cross-roads,  which  are  not  so  much  worked, 
are  beautiful  green  lanes  of  considerable  width,  and  for  the 
most  part  perfectly  straight.  In  some  places  the  country 
presents  the  appearance  of  a  splendid  park. 


648 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  attractions  of  Paraguay  are  its  agricultural  and  pas¬ 
toral  resources ;  and  the  timber-lands  are  said  to  be  the  finest 
in  the  world,  the  forests  being  situated  m  the  northern  part 
of  the  republic,  and  reaching  an  unmeasured  distance  into  the 
heart  of  Brazil— as  far  as  the  Amazon  Paver  to  the  north¬ 
ward,  and  far  into  the  mountain  regions  of  Bolivia  to  the 

eastward.  ,  ,  , 

Between  Paraguay  and  the  Andes  stretches  a  vast  country 

known  as  “  El  Gran  Chaco,”  a  region  almost  unexplored,  and 
which  offers  fine  grazing  land  and  excellent  pasture  for  cat¬ 
tle,  besides  the  timber  along  the  streams  which  water  it  pro¬ 
fusely.  Several  enterprising  colonists,  English  and  German, 
have  gone  in  there  and  opened  sugar  plantations,  producing 
enormous  crops;  and  the  time  will  soon  come  when  a  large 
portion  of  the  sugar  supply  of  South  America  wdl  be  derived 
from  this  source.  The  land  of  Paraguay  is  said  to  be  unu¬ 
sually  good  for  sugar,  but  the  chief  products  nowadays 
mandioca,  mate,  and  fruit.  During  the  war  with  Uiugoa^ 
Brazil,  and  the  Argentine  Republic,  nearly  all  the  cattle  weie 
slaughtered ;  but  new.  stock  has  been  introduced,  and  very 
large  droves  are  now  being  pastured  upon  the  ranges.  Hie 
fruits  comprise  nearly  everything  that  is  grown  m  the  trop¬ 
ical  or  semi-tropical  zones.  The  oranges  are  said  to  be  the 
finest  in  the  world,  and  the  pineapples  compare  with  those  of 
Ecuador,  which  surpass  anything  raised  upon  the  vestcin 
coast  of  South  America.  There  are  other  very  rich  and  whole¬ 
some  fruits,  but  the  country  is  so  far  inland  that  t  e\ 

never  be  exported.  „  .  .  , 

The  mandioca  is  a  root  resembling  the  yam  from  which  is 
produced  the  tapioca  of  commerce.  Life  and  death  are  blend¬ 
ed  in  the  plant,  but  every  part  of  it  is  useful  it  properly  treated 
and  is  as  essential  to  the  domestic  economy  of  Liazil  an 
Paraguay  as  rice  is  to  China,  or  as  .potatoes  are  to  Ireland. 
It  is  served  at  every  meal,  from  that  taken  from  the  dinner- 
pail  of  the  laborer  to  the  banquet  of  the  grandees,  just  as 
bread  is  with  us,  and  is  made  into  as  many  forms  of  food  as 
our  flour.  There  are  four  species  of  mandioca,  but  they  di  ei 


ASUNCION. 


649 


only  as  one  kind  of  apple  differs  from  another,  all  serving  the 
same  general  purpose.  The  plant  grows  about  four  feet  in 
height,  and  resembles  the  tomato  in  its  foliage.  The  stalk 
and  leaves  are  excellent  fodder  for  cattle,  and  are  often  dried 
and  used  for  their  medicinal  properties  by  the  old  women  of 
Paraguay.  When  eaten  raw  the  root  is  a  deadly  poison. 
Thirty-five  drops  of  the  juice  were  once  administered  as  an 
experiment  to  a  negro  who  was  under  sentence  of  death,  caus- 


OX  CART  ON  THE  PAMPAS. 


ing  speedy  dissolution  after  five  minutes  of  horrible  convul¬ 
sions.  This  poison  is  mysteriously  removed  or  neutralized  by 
the  application  of  heat,  and  the  root  can  be  boiled  or  baked 
like  a  yam  or  sweet-potato.  When  cooked  it  is  almost  pure 
starch,  and  contains  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  nutritious  proper¬ 
ties,  being  in  fact  as  well  as  in  fancy  the  staff  of  life  of  the 


650 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


,  The  roots  are  boiled,  and  are  then  ground  in  rude 
Cf  protein ”  a  aboit  the  color  of  buckwheat  floor. 

TalcaTa  refined  mandioca,  and  is  produced  by  a  modern 
Tapioca  is  a  re  a  ste  by  boiling  and 

proces  the  flou. r  be n re  1  is  manufact- 

fX loan  J  WUhe  nrw  product  is  shipped  to  other 
;X:f“iy’where  the  tapioca  of  commerce  is  manu- 

factured. 


CURING  VERBA  MATE. 


A  drink  called  chicla  is  also  made  of  mandm^byjoaking 

the  flour  in  water  and  letting  it  last  a  life- 

much  like  malt  or  yeast  and  drink  it  by  the 

time  for  an  American,  al  oug  intoxicant,  hut  leaves  no 

quart  without  injury .  Tt  •  \  chicha  spree 

deleterious  effect,  and  the i  man The 

"fC  umldeof  ^  of  the  sugar-cane,  and  the 


ASUNCION. 


651 


chicha  of  Chili  of  the  juice  of  the  grape.  All  these  drinks 
have  a  similar  taste  and  a  similar  effect. 

Although  the  Paraguayans  use  considerable  chicha,  they 
are  not  an  intemperate  people.  This  is  largely  due  to  their  ( 
excessive  fondness  for  their  native  tea,  the  yerba  mate,  which 
they  prefer  to  any  alcoholic  drink,  usually  taking  from  ten  to 
fifteen  cups  of  it  daily.  It  is  a  mild  stimulant,  but  is  not  in¬ 
toxicating.  The  yerba  mate  is  drunk  all  over  the  southern 
half  of  South  America,  and  is  well  adapted  to  the  climate  and 
the  requirements  of  the  people,  having  a  cool  effect  in  the 
warm  weather,  and  a  warm  effect  in  the  cold.  The  taste  is 
very  much  like  that  of 
catnip  tea,  as  it  has  a 
bitter  herbal  flavor  that 
is  disagreeable  at  first, 
but  one  comes  to  like  it 
very  soon.  The  South 
American  would  no 
more  refuse  a  cup  of 
yerba  mate  than  a  Ger¬ 
man  would  a  glass  of 
beer.  Whenever  he  trav¬ 
els  in  foreign  countries 
he  always  takes  a  sup¬ 
ply  along,  for  it  can¬ 
not  be  obtained  in  the 
United  States  or  in  Eu¬ 
rope.  In  the  markets, 
by  the  road-side,  in  the 
gardens,  and  in  the  door¬ 
ways  of  their  homes,  as 
commonly  as  the  Cuban 
with  his  cigarette  or  the 
Irishman  with  his  dudeen,  men  and  women  can  be  seen  at 
all  hours  of  the  day  and  night  with  a  mate  cup  in  their 
hands.  Instead  of  having  beer-gardens  or  wine-rooms,  the 
people  sit  around  the  public  places  in  Paraguay  drinking 


652 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


mate-  and  it  is  one  of  the  few  cases  in  existence  where  a 
national  habit  of  drinking  improves  the  mental  and  physical 

condition  of  tli©  people.  .  1-1 

Yerba  mate  grows  wild  in  Paraguay  in  great  copses  like 
hazel  or  cranberries,  but  its  quality  improves  under  cultiva¬ 
tion  Its  uses  were  originally  discovered  by  the  Jesuits,  those 
inquisitive  fellows  who  were  always  prying  into  the  secrets 
of  nature  as  well  as  the  secrets  of  State  and  th< 

They  were  the  best  mining  prospectors  in  South  America, 
and  were  constantly  exercising  their  botanical  ud  chemical 
knowledge  for  the  advantage  of  the  ^people.  Ihe  sappy 

twigs  are  picked  b .  the  bushes,  and  are  hung  ....  frames 

over  a  fire  to  dry.  When  they  become  ensp  they  are  re- 
duced  to  powder  by  being  rubbed  between  the  hands.  This 
powder  is  packed  for  export  in  green  hides,  which  shrink 
When  exposed  to  the  sun,  and  press  the  mate  into  a  compact 
solid  mass.  Everybody  carries  a  mate-cup  and  a  tube >  caUe 
•i  hombilla  The  cups  are  usually  ordinary  gouids,  but  t  y 
are  often  made  of  cocoa-nut  shells  and  the  shells  of  other  nuts, 
and  are  sometimes  beautifully  carved.  The  bomblllas  of  the 
common  people  are  bamboo  stems  with  the  pith  punched  oil  i  , 
but  the  wealthy  people  have  them  made  ot  sdver.  and  otte 
of  odd  The  bamboo  tubes  are  the  most  agreeable  to  use 

They  do  not  conduct  the  heat  so  rapidly,  and  never  scald 
the  l^is,  as  the  silver  ones  do.  The  cups  are  half  filled  with 
powdered  yerba  mate,  then  boiling  water  is  poured  in.  De •  - 
cate  drinkers  always  throw  away  this  water,  and  fiU  the  cup 
as  it  is  too  bitter  for  their  taste;  but  the  habitual 
users  of  the  weed  consider  the  first  water  as  the  best,  an< 
keep  pouring  in  water  and  sucking  it  through  the  tube  until 
the  strength  of  the  powder  is  exhausted,  when  the  refuse 

is  thrown  out  and  the  cup  is  refilled. 

The  y erlales,  or  mate  fields,  of  Paraguay  are  said  to  cover 
three  million  acres  in  their  present  state,  and  to  produce  an 
annual  crop  of  thirty  thousand  tons.  During  the  reign  „ 
the  tyrants  Francia  and  Lopez  the  exportation  of  mate  was 
monopolized  by  the  Government,  and  every  citizen  was  com- 


ASUNCION. 


653 


leased  to  an  Argentine  firm,  which  pays  a  royalty  of  one 
dollar  a  ton  to  the  Government.  This  concession  was  given 
when  the  Treasury  was  empty  and  the  Government  was 
greatly  in  need  of  money,  so  that  what  might  have  been 


pelled  to  pay  as  tribute-money  a  certain  amount  each  year 
for  the  benefit  of  the  despots,  being  driven  to  it  by  taskmas¬ 
ters,  as  were  the  children  of  Israel  to  the  making  of  bricks  in 
Egypt.  But  under  the  new  regime  the  tea-forests  have  been 


A  PARAGUAY  HOTEL. 


654 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


a  very  productive  source  of  income  was  sacrificed  for  a  little 
cash  in  hand. 

The  export  goes  to  the  Argentine  Republic,  Uruguay,  and 
Chili  Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  send  it  to  Europe, 
hut  they  were  not  successful.  During  early  times  the  Queen 


NATIVE  PAPPOOSE  AND  CRADLE. 


of  Spain  prohibited  the  importation  of  yerba  mate  by  her 
subjects,  on  the  ground  that  it  was  productive  of  tarrenn 
in  women,  but  the  rapidly  increasing  population  of  the  lux  e. 
Plate  countries,  where  it  is  used  to  the  greatest  extent,  seems 
to  prove  the  fallacy  of  her  Majesty’s  theory.  In  l  ruguaj, 
where  the  women  are  scarcely  ever  seen  without  a  mate-cup 
in  their  hands,  the  vital  statistics  show  a  larger  percentage 
births  than  in  any  other  country  in  the  worhl ;  and  there 
something  curious  in  the  fact  before-mentioned,  that  the  - 
her  of  males  bom  in  that  country  is  so  much  great®  than  the 
number  of  females.  No  attempt  has  ever  been  made  o  intro¬ 
duce  mate  into  this  country,  and  the  consumption  of  the  arti 
cle  will  probably  always  be  confined  to  South  America. 

Paraguay  tobacco  is  used  all  over  South  America.  I 

rank,  black,  and  full  of  nicotine,  but 't  makes  a  ve^  go  J 

cigarette  being  about  as  strong  as  the  blackest  Turkish 
bacco  or  ‘  perique."  Everybody  in  Paraguay  smokes-men, 


ASUNCION. 


655 


women,  and  children — and  their  cigarettes  are  made  of  the 
native  tobacco  and  corn -husks.  During  the  last  few  years 
several  political  refugees  from  Cuba  have  found  a  resting- 
place  in  Paraguay,  and  have  experimented  with  native  to¬ 
bacco  on  the  Cuban  plan.  These  experiments  have  shown 
that,  where  property  cultivated  and  property  cured,  this  to¬ 
bacco  is  as  good  as  any  raised  in  the  West  Indies;  but  the 
natives  let  it  grow  wild,  and  take  no  pains  either  in  its  culti¬ 
vation  or  in  the  treatment  of  the  leaves. 


A  HACIENDA. 


The  timber  of  Paraguay  is  very  fine,  and  includes  almost 
every  variety  known  to  arboriculture,  from  the  finest  light 
woods  that  may  replace  those  of  China  and  Japan  to  the 
heavy  and  tough  varieties  that  sink  in  water  like  iron,  and 


656 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


TEOrLE  OF  “EL  GRAN  CHACO.” 

from  the  United  States.  Two  American  saw-mills  have  re¬ 
cently  been  introduced,  and  the  water-power  is  sufficient  to 
operate  them  at  a  small  expense.  The  timber  regions  are  full 
of  streams,  which  can  be  utilized  for  floating  logs  and  rafts, 
and  nature  seems  to  have  provided  every  facility  for  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  their  extensive  resources. 

Along  the  western  border  of  Paraguay  lies  an  immense 
territory,  in  some  parts  reported  to  be  arid  and  waste  for 
want  of  water,  but  in  others  filled  with  a  succession  of  riv¬ 
ers,  and  destined  in  time  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable 
portions  of  the  Argentine  Republic.  It  is  called  “  El  Gran 


are  indestructible.  For  lack  of  energy  and  saw-mills,  the  for¬ 
ests,  so  far,  are  almost  untouched.  The  dwellings  and  other 
buildings'  of  the  country  are  made  of  adobe,  and  the  small 
quantity  of  dressed  lumber  used  there  comes  from  Canada  or 


ASUNCION. 


657 


Chaco.”  It  extends  from  the  Parana  Eiver  to  Bolivia,  and 
is  separated  on  the  east  from  Paraguay  by  the  river  of  the 
same  name.  It  is  divided  by  the  river  Vermijo  into  two 
ahnost  equal  parts,  one  called  the  “  Chaco  Austral  ”  and  the 
other  “Chaco  Boreal,”  the  latter  extending  to  latitude  20° 
south,  and  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Bolivian  province 
of  Chiquitos.  The  “Chaco  Boreal”  is  an  uninterrupted  plain, 
elevated  about  four  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea, 
and  divided  into  the  most  beautiful  forests,  with  intervening 
meadows,  as  if  made  purposely  for  the  raising  of  cattle.  The 
Austral  or  Southern  Chaco  lies  between  the  Yermijo  on  the 
north,  the  Parana  on  the  east,  and  the  province  of  Santa  Fe 
on  the  south.  It  is  completely  level,  and  is  richly  endowed 
by  nature,  not  only  with  a  deep  soil,  but  with  most  magnifi¬ 
cent  forests.  As  yet  these  vast  regions  are  almost  exclu¬ 
sively  occupied  by  wild  Indians.  A  large  portion  has  never 
been  explored,  and  hence  but  little  is  yet  known  of  the  inte¬ 
rior,  or  of  its  treasures  of  vegetable  wealth.  Only  where  it 
skirts  along  the  Parana  and  Paraguay  rivers,  with  here  and 
there  a  small  clearing 
and  settlement,  the  nu¬ 
cleus  of  a  number  of 
agricultural  colonies,  has 
anything  been  scientifi¬ 
cally  determined  in  ref¬ 
erence  to  its  timber  re¬ 
sources.  The  region  pos¬ 
sesses  an  immense  ad¬ 
vantage  in  great  water¬ 
courses  flowing  along  its 
eastern  borders,  and  the 
smaller  streams  which  penetrate  its  interior,  and  are  navi¬ 
gable  for  many  hundreds  of  miles.  Thus  all  its  vast  wealth 
of  precious  woods  and  valuable  timber  is  rendered  accessible 
not  only  to  Buenos  Ayres,  but  as  ocean  ships  can  load  along 
its  banks,  it  is  also  accessible  to  the  markets  of  the  world, 
without  the  necessity  of  transshipment.  The  wood-choppers 
42 


AN  ARMADILLO. 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


G58 


are  at  w 
shipped 


ork,  and  the  quantities  of  all  kinds  of  precious  woods 
down  the  rivers  are  becoming  greater  and  greatei 


CTThe  number  of  horned  cattle  in  Paraguay  is  now  estimated 
at  six  hundred  thousand,  and  there  is  said  to  be  pasturage  for 


A  RANCH  ON  EL  GRAN  CHACO. 


several  million  within  the  limits  of  the  republic,  and  an  un¬ 
limited  area  in  El  Gran  Chaco  beyond  the  timber  legions 
'7a  p  a”  similar  to  New  Mexico,  rising  in  great  terraces  or 
steppes  to  the  foot-hills  of  the  Andes.  The  elevation  of  this 
area  above  the  sea  is  from  four  to  eight  thousand  teet.  an 
although  it  borders  upon  the  tropics,  it  is  said  to  be  an  excel 
w  rtnoe  and  the  ranchmen  of  the  Argentine  Republic  are 
contemplating  it  with  covetous  eyes.  No  industry  pays  so 


ASUNCION. 


659 


well  in  Paraguay  as  cattle  -  raising.  The  severe  frosts  and 
droughts  which  at  times  annoy  the  ranchmen  of  the  Argen¬ 
tine  Republic  are  unknown  there ;  the  streams  are  numerous 
and  perennial,  the  cattle  fatten  quicker,  attain  greater  weight, 
and  afford  a  better  quality  of  beef,  owing  to  the  nutritious 
grass  and  abundance  of  water.  Young  cattle,  as  before  stated, 
may  be  bought  in  the  Argentine  Republic  and  transported  by 
river  steamer  to  Paraguay  for  twelve  or  thirteen  dollars  per 
head,  and  land  can  be  purchased  at  about  twenty  cents  an 
acre  from  the  Government. 


1110  DE  JANEIRO. 

THE  CAPITAL  OF  BRAZIL. 

The  name  of  the  capital  of  Brazil  means  “Ewer  of  Jan- 
u-u-v  ”  and  in  the  native  tongue  is  pronounced  Reeo-iUy-Hay- 
nJi-ray-oh  When  the  ancient  mariners  who  discovered  th 
Brazilian  coast  passed  through  the  narrow  gate-way  to  the 
huhor  and  saw  the  beautiful  bay  in  the  amphitheatre  of 
mountains  surrounde*  by  eternal  verdure,  they  supposed  th  } 
were  entering  the  mouth  of  a  river  that  would  lead  them  to 
heZ  >  mtc-1  Land ;  and  when  they  found  out  their  mistake 
thev  despised  the  place  so  much  that  they  did  not  even  have 
the^ good-nature  to  christen  it  after  a  saint  but  marked  it  on 
tlKMr  charts  simply  the  river  discovered  in  Januaiv. 

The  bay  around  which  the  city  lies  is  famous  for  its  beauty 
•  l  w  of  Naples  or  the  Golden  Horn.  The  pano- 

ruiri  'i's*1  ever  changing  with  the  shifting  clouds,  and  in  this 
ranni  is  evei  cue  0  0  Nowhere  is  the  contrast  be- 

country  everything  is ^  ^  ^  and  tUe  outlines  of 

!;voen,  :r  ue  ^  ^  ** 

Es 

ors  and  eternal  loveliness. 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


661 


Viewed  from  the  deck  of  a  ship  in  the  harbor,  the  city  of 
Rio  looks  like  a  fragment  of  fairy-land — a  cluster  of  alabaster 
castles  decorated  with  vines ;  but  the  illusion  is  instantly 
dispelled  upon  landing,  for  the  streets  are  narrow,  damp, 
dirty,  reeking  with  repulsive  odors,  and  filled  with  vermin- 
covered  beggars  and  wolfish-looking  dogs.  The  whole  town 
seems  to  be  in  a  continual  perspiration,  and  the  atmosphere 
is  so  enervating  that  the  stranger  feels  an  almost  irresistible 


...  V  "v 


BAY  OF  RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


tendency  to  lie  down.  There  is  now  and  then  a  lovely  little 
spot  where  Nature  has  displayed  her  beauties  unhindered, 
and  the  environs  of  the  city  are  filled  with  the  luxury  of 
tropical  vegetation ;  but  there  are  only  a  few  fine  residences, 
a  few  pleasant  promenades,  and  a  few  clusters  of  regal  palms, 
which  look  down  upon  the  filth  and  squalor  of  the  town 
with  dainty  indifference.  The  palm  is  the  peacock  of  trees. 


662 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


A  STREET  IX  RIO. 


Nothing  can  degrade  it,  and 
the  filth  in  which  it  often 
grows  only  serves  to  height¬ 
en  its  beauty.  Behind  some 
of  the  residences  of  the  bet- 
er  classes  are  gardens  in  which  grow  flowers  that  battle 
he  painter’s  skill,  and  foliage  that  is  the  ideal  of  luxuriance 
ml  gracefulness.  They  are  little  glimpses  of  green  and  gd 

n  a  desert  of  misery  and  dirt.  A  tew  years  ago  iei 

•  Qrifi  ,,ii  the  garbage  and  ottal  or 

mt  even  a  sewer  m  xtio,  ana  an  me  eai  o 

he  city  was  carried  through  the  streets  on  the  heads  of  men 

,nd  dumped  into  the  sea.  Now  there  are  toms  unto  he 

principal  streets,  but  they  seem  to  be  of  little  use,  a 

main  thoroughfares  are  abominable,  and  one  wonders  J  ia 

the  less  pretentious  ones  may  he.  The  P~ts jerftte 

roughest  cobble-stone,  the  streets  are  so  nanow  that  scaice  y 

Hrel  of  air  can  enter  them.  and  the  su^me  cannot 

reach  the  pools  of  filth  that  steam  and  fester  in  the  gutte 

“fitffin  the  shape  of  a  narrow  crescent  lying  be- 
tween  the  mountains  and  the  bay,  nowhere  more  than  half  a 
mi"  wide,  and  stretching  for  a  distance  of  nine  or  ten  miles. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO, 


663 


It  can  never  be  any  wider,  but  grows  at  either  end.  The 
chief  residence  street  lies  along  the  edge  of  the  water,  but 
the  business  houses  are  crowded  into  the  lower  portion  of 
the  town,  damp,  gloomy,  and  dismal,  the  streets  being  so  nar¬ 
row  that  carriages  are  forbidden  to  enter  them  during  the 


THE  CITY  OF  RIO  FROM  THE  BAY. 


busy  hours  of  the  day.  A  fire  that  would  burn  out  the  older 
portion  of  the  city  would  be  a  blessing,  and  might  redeem 
Rio  from  some  of  its  filth  and  ugliness. 

The  public  buildings  are  quite  as  ugly  and  unpretentious 


664 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


as  the  commercial  houses.  The  city  palace  of  Empero^ 
fronts  the  market-place,  in  which  donkeys  and  car 
loaded  daily,  and  where  the  fish-boats “  “  Ts  a°u 
nated  by  the  stench  of  decaying  o ;  ^  like 

ancient  and  fish-hlte  smell  ihe.st  l""  and  X)0m 

a  warehouse  than  the  shelter  of  J eiutifai  palaces  in 

every'respect  to^nythhig  ^ 

ing  in  which  Congress  sits  is  a  glooi  }  1  ’  h 

>  le  redeeming  feature,  and  a  great  empire  ike  Brazil  oue 

“fes^M-sSSSss 

commission  men, meicha  • ,  l  *  ■  .^'“nationalities,  assemble 

a  s.  -  — » -  «• 

‘•Seventh  of  September”  and  the  “First  of 

what)  has  taken  place.  ^  mes  Gf  the  saints  are 

‘‘Street  of  Good  Jesus,  anti  t  >  ,  “Xo 

the  v  used.  It  seems  a  trifle  queer  to  to  directed  to  M 
'20  First  of  March  Street,"  or  for  .  mau  ^o  hve  at  the  co 
ner  of  "St.  John  the  Baptist  and  St  John  the  r-va  g 

Streets,”  but  the  Brazj"  “the  cdehrated  Eua  do  Ouvi- 

.  TheJ™Calnarrow  little  alley-way,  in  which  two  carriages 
^d  other.  In  fact  I  never  saw  a  carriage  in 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


665 


the  street,  and  doubt  if  a  driver  would  be  bold  enough  to  vent¬ 
ure  there.  Here  are  the  shops  of  the  principal  merchants, 
and  the  gorgeous  stores  of  the  artificers  of  feather  flowers,  and 
the  dealers  in  gold  and  silver  and  precious  stones.  The  street, 
from  one  end  to  the  other,  is  filled  at  night  with  people,  not 
on  the  narrow  sidewalks  only,  but  completely  filling  the  thor¬ 
oughfare  from  wall  to  wall.  Officers  of  the  army  and  navy, 


AQUEDUCT  AT  RIO. 


and  soldiers  and  sailors,  all  in  uniform,  mingle  with  the  crowd, 
and  flash  their  gold  lace  in  the  bright  light  that  floods  the 
street.  Everywhere,  too,  are  the  elaborate  mulatto  gendarmes, 
the  police  of  the  city.  From  the  cafes  chantcmts  come  the 
sounds  of  music  and  the  clinking  of  glasses.  At  little  tables 
in  the  cafes  the  Brazilians  sit,  drinking  strong  coffee  or  other 
beverages,  talking,  gesticulating,  and  never  for  a  moment  com- 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


pletely  at  rest.  Catching  a  weasel  asleep  is  easy  compared 
with  that  of  catching  a  Brazilian  when  some  portion  of  his 

body  is  not  m  motion. 

This  is  owing  to  the 
amount  of  strong  black 
coffee  they  drink.  A 
Brazilian  proverb  says 
that  coffee,  to  be  good, 
must  be  “  black  as  night, 
as  bitter  as  death,  and 
hot  as  sheol.” 

The  total  abstinence 
cause  has  few  if  any  sup¬ 
porters  in  Brazil.  Every¬ 
body  drinks— men,  wom¬ 
en,  and  children.  1  he 
police  records  show  that 
men  do  get  drunk  here, 
but  they  are  very  seldom 
seen.  The  laboring  class¬ 
es  drink  a  vile  beverage 
called  casasch,  which  is 
made  of  the  juice  of  the 
sugar-cane  in  the  regular 
distillery  fashion.  But 
moderate  as  the  Brazil¬ 
ians  are  in  the  use  of 
liquors,  they  are  decided¬ 
ly  immoderate  in  the  use 
of  coffee.  It  is  coffee 

the  first  thing  in  the 
the  avenue  of  kotal  palms  bio.  moruing  and  the  last 

thing  at  night,  coffee  at  meals  and  coffee  between  meals,  and 
all  of  it  made  according  to  the  proverb. 

Bio  is  a  succession  of  disappointments  The  °nl}  ie.  y 
me  tv  place  is  the  Botanical  Garden,  which  serves  to  ilhis 
Cte' what  the  whole  city  might  be  with  the  exercise  of  a 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


667 


little  taste  and  the  expenditure  of  a  trifling  sum  of  money. 
Here  are  colonnades  of  palms  which  surpass  anything  on 
the  globe,  and  which  are  worth  a  journey  to  Brazil  to  see. 
Here  are  all  the  plants  and  trees  that  the  country  pro¬ 
duces,  and  no  land  is  so  rich  in  vegetation  as  Brazil.  Flow¬ 
ers  of  the  most  gorgeous  hues,  orchids  | 

that  are  wonders  of  color,  and  a  rep¬ 
resentation  of  the  virgin  forests  of 
the  Amazon,  a  tangled  mass  of 
wild,  luxuriant  vegetation,  full  of 
birds  of  the  most 
brilliant  plumage,  ^ 
bugs  that  look  'aI 
like  animated  gems, 
and  flowers  of  scarlet, 
purple,  and  yellow,  that 
make  the  forest  ap¬ 
pear  as  if  it 
were  ablaze. 

Every  col¬ 
or  is  in¬ 
tense. 


THE  PRETTIEST  THINGS  IN  BRAZIL. 


There  are  no  delicate  tints  and  no 
gentle  hues.  The  flowers  have  no  per¬ 
fume,  and  the  birds  no  songs.  The  whole 
country  seems  to  be  painted  yellow  and  red. 

Strangers  always  visit  the  fish -market,  where 
all  sorts  of  shiny  creatures  are  to  be  found,  most 
of  them  peculiar  to  the  waters  of  Brazil.  The  whole  busi¬ 
ness  is  conducted  by  auction,  and  the  fish  are  sold  by  the 
basket  to  the  highest  -  bidder  men,  who  have  retail  places 
throughout  the  city,  or  who  peddle  them  in  the  streets. 


668 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


All  varieties  of  food  are  peddled  about  the  town,  and  the 
venders  attract  attention  by  clapping  pieces  of  wood  togeth¬ 
er  and  uttering  peculiar  cries.  There  are  drinking  -  booths 
alono-  the  street  tat  which  all  sorts  of  beverages  can  be  ob¬ 
tained,  from  goats’  milk  to  brandy,  and  casasch  is  sold  by 
the  bucketful.  There  are  plenty  of  street-car  lines  and  all 
the  population  ride.  The  cars  are  always  crowded  and 
everybody  reads  a  morning  paper  as  he  goes  down -town, 

and  an  evening  paper  on  his  way  home. 

Foreigners  are  generally  puzzled  to  know  why  the  horse- 
cars  in  Rio  are  called  “bonds.”  It  happened  m  this  way: 
When  the  first  horse  railroad  was  built  in  Rio  bonds  were 
issued  to  pay  for  it.  There  was  a  great  talk  about  these 
bonds  and  the  uneducated  were  at  a  loss  to  know  what 
the  English  word  meant.  When  they  saw  the  first  car 
they  thought  they  had  found  a  solution  of  the  question, 
and  all  exclaimed,  “  There  is  one  of  those  much -  talked -of 
bonds.”  So  all  over  Brazil  a  horse -car  is  a  “bond  to 

thIU?  noticed  that  every  ox-cart  in  Brazil  creaks  with  the 
most  soul-reaching  sounds.  I  asked  a  cartman  why  he  did 
not  orease  its  wheels.  He  replied  that  the  creaking  stimu¬ 
lated  the  animals,  and  they  would  not  work  without  it 

Humming-birds  are  plenty  as  flies  about  Rio,  and  the  na¬ 
tives  call  them  be  of  ores  (kiss  flowers).  At  night  the  air  is 
full  of  myriads  of  fire-flies  that  look  like  a  shower  of  stars. 
To  one  who  makes  a  tour  of  South  America  before  going  to 
Brazil  it  seems  as  if  all  of  the  homely  women  on  the  continent 
had  emigrated  there,  for  pretty  ones  are  extremely  scarce 
Their  complexions  are  sallow,  and  they  all  hav  e  a  bilious 
look  Another  oddity  is  that  the  women  are  invariably  fat 
and  the  men  are  invariably  lean.  Their  complexions  are  ru¬ 
ined  by  the  climate,  and  the  fives  of  indolence  they  lead  give 
them  a  tendency  to  obesity,  which  is  augmented  by  the  ex¬ 
cessive  use  of  sweetmeats.  The  women  are  munching  confec¬ 
tioner  from  morning  till  night,  and  scarcely  eat  anything 
else,  and  their  time  is  divided  between  dozing  in  a  rocking- 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


669 


A  BRAZILIAN  HACIENDA. 

chair  or  peeking  through  the  blinds  to  see  the  people  on  the 
streets.  One  can  ride  about  Rio  a  11  day  without  seeing  a 
Brazilian  lady,  and  the  only  glimpse  a  man  ever  gets  of  them 
is  during  the  evenings  at  the  cafes  or  at  the  playhouses,  un- 


670 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


less  lie  gets  out  early  in  the  morning  and  sees  them  on  the 
way  to  mass. 

At  six  o’clock  every  morning  the  streets  are  full  of  women 
on  their  way  to  church,  at  seven  o’clock  they  are  on  their  way 
to  their  homes,  and  at  half-past  seven  there  is  not  one  to  he 
seen.  In  the  evening,  when  the  gas  is  lighted,  they  pour  from 
the  houses  into  the  streets,  the  parks,  the  ice-cream  booths, 
and  the  theatres.  There  they  appear  in  their  Paris  finer}-, 
overloaded  with  jewellery,  munching  candy,  nibbling  ices,  and 
gossiping. 

X ext  to  her  complexion,  the  ugliest  thing  about  a  Brazilian 
woman  is  her  voice.  It  sounds  as  if  the  parrots  had  taught 
her  to  speak,  and  when  you  hear  it  behind  the  blinds,  as  one 
often  does,  it  is  always  a  matter  of  doubt  whether  “Polly” 
or  her  mistress  is  talking.  But  the  Brazilians  do  not  call  their 
parrots  Polly,  as  we  do.  The  common  name  is  “  Loreta.” 

A  Brazilian  woman  never  goes  shopping.  Servants  are  sent 
for  samples ;  and  if  it  is  a  bonnet  the  senorita  wants  to  buy, 
a  box  or  basket  containing  all  the  latest  Parisian  styles  is 
sent  up  for  her  inspection.  Most  of  the  purchasing  is  done 
in  this  way,  and  a  woman  is  seldom  seen  in  a  shop.  But  in 
all  of  these  remarks  the  negroes  are  excepted.  The  streets 
swarm  day  and  night  with  gorgeously  dressed  Dinahs,  wear¬ 
ing  turbans  that  would  shame  a  passion-flower  for  color,  and 
usually  yellow  or  red  gowns.  They  chatter  like  magpies,  and 
seldom  seem  to  be  going  anywhere  or  to  have  any  object  in 
life  beyond  gossiping  with  the  friends  they  meet. 

More  attention  is  now  paid  to  female  education  in  Brazil 
than  formerly.  At  one  time  it  was  only  necessary  for  a 
senorita  to  know  how  to  read  her  prayer-book  and  to  em¬ 
broider,  but  of  late  seminaries  for  females  have  been  estab¬ 
lished,  and  the  nuns  compelled  to  enlarge  the  curriculum  of 
convent  study.  The  Brazilian  woman  is  now  beginning  to 
receive  the  respect  that  modern  civilization  demands  for  her, 
and  is  no  longer  kept  as  a  plaything  for  man.  She  is  intelli¬ 
gent,  learns  readily,  and  has  considerable  wit,  but  never  reads 
anything  except  the  fashion  papers  and  translations  of  French 


IilO  DE  JANEIRO. 


671 


novels.  A  bookseller  told  me  that  the  demand  for  the  last 
named  was  increasing  largely,  and  that  where  he  sold  only 
one  ten  years  ago  he  sells  a  hundred  nowadays.  Education 
in  music  and  the  lighter  arts  is  also  becoming  popular,  as  the 
increased  sales  in  music  and  painting  and  drawing  materials 
show.  The  Brazilian  woman  has  always  been  famous  for  her 
embroidery,  and  her  house  is  full  of  the  most  beautiful  work, 
the  doing  of  which  she  has  learned  from  the  nuns. 


In  Bio  social  restrictions  are  being  removed,  the  two  sexes 
are  allowed  to  mingle  with  greater  freedom  than  formerly, 
and  society  is  beginning  to  assume  a  new  phase.  Occasion¬ 
ally  grand  balls  are  given,  and  within  the  last  few  years  the 
natives  have  acquired  the  habit  of  occasionally  visiting  one 
another’s  houses  socially  with  their  wives  —  something  that 
was  unknown  a  few  years  ago.  The  etiquette  of  modern  so¬ 
ciety  was  reversed  in  Brazil  not  many  years  ago.  If  a  man 
bowed  to  a  female  acquaintance,  or  addressed  her,  except  in 


THE  OLD  CITY  PALACE. 


672 


THE  CAPITALS  OP  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


the  presence  of  her  husband,  father,  or  brother,  it  was  consid¬ 
ered  an  insult,  to  be  punished  with  a  blow,  but  now  it  is  con¬ 
sidered  entirely  proper  for  ladies  and  gentlemen  to  converse 
together.  There  remains,  however,  the  old  system  of  formal 
calling  or  exchanging  visits.  Ladies  never  go  out  alone  to 
call  on  their  friends,  and  no  gentleman  will  be  received  at  a 
house  when  the  husband  or  father  is  absent. 


IN  THE  SUBURBS. 


The  theatres  of  Eio  are  numerous  and  well  attended,  but 
are  neither  handsome  nor  well  arranged.  There  are  French, 
Spanish,  and  Portuguese  performances,  and  during  the  winter 
season  an  Italian  opera  two  or  three  times  a  week,  which 
is  liberally  patronized  by  the  upper  classes.  The  perform¬ 
ances  at  the  opera  as  well  as  at  the  theatres  are  considered 
only  an  adjunct  to  social  conversation,  however,  and  because 
of  the  talking  going  on  around  him  during  the  play,  one  can 
scarcely  hear  what  is  said  by  the  performers.  Connected 
with  every  theatre  is  a  garden  and  cafe,  and  between  the 
acts  the  people  repair  to  these  places.  Ice-cream  and  all  sorts 
of  beverages  are  served,  and  confectionery  of  course.  They 
have  recently  built  the  great  Theatre  Dom  Pedro  Segundo, 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


673 


Then  he  dashes  up  to  the  theatre  with  his  guards,  equerries, 
and  gentlemen-in -waiting.  As  he  enters  the  box  the  orches¬ 
tra  strikes  up  the  stirring  imperial  hymn,  the  people  rise, 
and  shout,  “Viva  Dom  Pedro  Segundo!”  the  Emperor  bows, 
smiles,  takes  his  seat,  and  the  opera  proceeds. 

The  hotels  in  Brazil  are  very  bad.  There  are  two  or  three 
43 


larger  than  La  Scala  or  San  Carlo,  and  said  to  have  a  seating 
capacity  of  eleven  thousand.  In  building  this  theatre  the 
matter  of  size  has  rather  been  overdone,  for  a  large  portion 
of  the  audience  is  unable  to  hear  the  opera.  The  Emperor 
has  two  boxes  in  the  opera-house — one  a  small  private  box, 
and  one  a  great  and  gorgeous  box  of  state.  When  the  ven¬ 
erable  gentleman  is  out  spending  the  evening  somewhere,  and 
wishes  to  visit  the  opera  quietly  for  a  moment,  he  goes  into 
his  private  box,  and  sits  there  without  causing  unusual  atten¬ 
tion;  but  when  he  goes  in  state  he  occupies  the  large  box. 


COTTAGES  IN  THE  INTERIOR. 


THE  CAPITALS  of  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


674 

,  .  ,  tolerably  good  rooms  and  good  Uv- 

usually  crowded,  and -  — 

till  city  finds  it  difficult  in  Montevideo  and 

support  a  very  fine  hotel,  sued  as  is  are  witli  tlie 

Santiago,  but  at  present  therms  noth  ^  ^  M  badly 

accommodations  fou  worltp  The  meats  and  fish 

off  for  hotels  as  any  ci  )  fruits  are  excel- 

served  are  usually  of  a  poor  qu£t*  ™  ^  either  for 

lent.  There  is  no  such  wines  are  usually 

variety  or  for  dehciousness.  ’  OTed  throughout  Span- 

good.  Good  wine  ^  t0  .  crumb  of  bread 

ish  America.  It  a  ,,  always  expect  a  bottle 

nnd  a  drop  of  water. P* grapes  of  Bra- 
of  wine  to  go  With  it.  T1  ^  ^  whole  year  round. 

zil  are  unusual  \  ■  ?  . ...  ,he  principal  fruits  are 

The  peaches  are  also  rery  good  the  prl^  #nd  some 

bananas,  oranges,  pnu  app  c  ,  ^  te  rate  climates, 

other  things  that  we  do  no  good  cattle  in 

So  far  it  has  been  found  Pride  de  Sul,  being  the 

Brazil,  ahhough  the  tgmperature,  and  ranchmen  have 

most  southerly,  lux.  .  found  in  the  interior  on  the 

been  utihzing  the  chiefly  in  the  hands  of 

border  ot  brugaa).  ^  Uruguay  border. 

TbeDs"le  sell  for  from  five  to  she  **»££*££ 

comes  by 

steamer  from  the  Argentine  Eep  palatable  to 

The  native  dishes  ^unt  of  garlic.  In 

those  who  do  not  care  to  <  inielioT  cannot  find  anything 
fact,  a  stranger  gOU1^  ^  tpege  are  the  only  articles  the  na- 
to  eat  but  boiled  egg  ,  Grease  and  garlic  do  not 

«ve  Brazilian  cooh  for  the  na- 

penetrate  the  shells,  but  e  °f  uff  nce  in  them,  and  use 

tives  seem  to  have  no  idea  of  ™/  ^®y^the “transition  stage 
them  in  all  conditions  of  age,  and  often  in 

of  being. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


675 


Among  the  important  articles  used  for  the  table  is  jerked 
beef.  Immense  quantities  of  it  are  imported  from  the  Ar¬ 
gentine  Republic  and  Uruguay,  and  it  is  shipped  here  by  the 
ton.  It  is  said  that  thirty  thousand  tons  of  it  are  annually 
imported  into  Brazil,  and  it  furnishes  the  staple  food  for  the 
slaves  on  the  planta¬ 
tions  and  the  com¬ 
mon  people  in  the 
cities.  Jerked  beef 
and  beans  are  al¬ 
ways  to  be  found 
on  the  table,  and 
both  mixed  in  a 
stew  with  plenty  of 
garlic  compose  the 
omnipresent  nation¬ 
al  dish.  Bacalao ,  or 
codfish,  is  considered 
a  great  delicacy,  and 
about  seventy  -  five 
thousand  tubs  are  annually  imported  from  A  ova  Scotia  and 
the  United  States.  The  people  in  Brazil  are  so  fond  of  it 
that  they  will  use  it  at  any  time  in  preference  to  the  fresh  fish 
of  their  own  waters ;  but  the  Yankee  would  not  recognize 
either  the  codfish  or  the  beans  in  this  country,  mixed  up 
as  they  usually  are  in  an  olla  joodrida  of  yam,  cabbage,  and 
garlic. 

The  foreign  commerce  of  Brazil  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Eng¬ 
lish,  and  the  retail  commerce  in  the  hands  of  the  French  and 
German.  In  fact,  nearly  nine-tenths  of  the  commercial  com¬ 
munity  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  is  composed  of  foreigners.  There 
are  very  few  Americans  there,  however,  and  that  is  one  reason 
why  our  trade  with  that  country  is  so  small.  The  native 
Portuguese  are  usually  the  land-owners,  the  planters,  and  pro¬ 
fessional  men;  and  there  is  a  very  large  body  of  officials,  coin- 
posed  to  a  great  extent  of  the  decayed  aristocracy. 

At  all  the  public  gatherings  in  Rio  these  people  appear 


THE  IGUANA. 


(376  THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 

in  uniforms  or  court  dresses,  decorated  with  stars  and  crosses 
so  numerously  and  inappropriately  bestowed  as  to  border  on 
the  rSiculous.  Many  boys,  apparently  not  more  than  four¬ 
teen  or  fifteen  years  of  age,  can  be  seen  at  these  gather  in  , 
wearino-  tawdry  silk  and  velvet  dresses,  and  stars  which  hav 
been  obtained  by  inheritance  or  by  purchase.  T  ere  usee 


A  BRAZILIAN  LAUNDRY. 


he  a  custom  under  which  patents  of  nobility,  with  stare  am 
crosses,  and  “  the  insignia  of  the  order  of  Christ,  which  wa 
the  highest  decoration,  could  be  obtained  by  purchase  an 
the  race  for  these  decorations  attained  a  greater  height  in 
Brazil  'probably  than  in  any  other  country.  At  one  time 
almost  every  petty  shopkeeper  in  the  empire  might  be  seen 
on  the  streets  on  holidays  with  a  “  lrabito  de  Christo  on  his 
breast.  These  purchased  honors  were  worn  by  the  gnnari 
of  the  Church  as  well  as  by  civilians  of  all  degrees,  and  being 
handed  down  from  the  generation  that  lived  when  such 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


677 


ing  up  to  the  knee,  and  a  sort  of  mantle  similar  to  that  used 
in  Portugal,  generally  lined  with  red,  thrown  negligently  over 
the  shoulders ;  but  on  the  sea-coast  people  dress  in  the  Euro¬ 
pean  style.  In  Rio  there  is  a  great  deal  of  rivalry  in  toilets 
among  the  ladies.  As  in  other  cities  of  South  America,  the 
gentlemen  usually  dress  in  broadcloth  suits,  patent  -  leather 
boots,  and  black  silk  hats,  or  in  white  duck  or  linen. 


things  could  be  procured  by  purchase,  still  exist  in  great 
numbers  among  the  people  of  the  country.  In  the  present 
generation  the  decorations  of  the  empire  are  given  to  those 
only  who  have  performed  some  service  for  the  State,  and  can¬ 
not  be  secured  by  purchase. 

The  prevailing  costume  of  the  people  in  the  country  is  just 
as  it  was  a  hundred  years  ago.  They  wear  broad-brimmed 
hats  with  low  crowns,  tied  with  a  ribbon  under  the  chin ; 
velveteen  jackets,  and  waistcoats  of  gay  colors,  with  metal 
buttons ;  linen  or  cotton  drawers ;  high  black  gaiters  button- 


A  COUNTRY  SCHOOL. 


67S 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA.  . 


The  school  system  is  very  meagre,  but  is  improving.  There 
are  in  the  empire  2000  public  schools  for  a  popiha  ion  o 
12  000  000  people,  and  the  State  expends  annually  $8,000,000 
for  public  instruction.  During  the  last  few  years,  at  near  y 
every  session  of  Parliament,  the  Government  introduced  a 
compulsory  education  bill ;  but  the  bill  has  never  become  a 
law  The  upper  classes  have  an  inclination  for  education 
but  nothing  is  ever  done  by  the  Government  towards  educat¬ 
ing  the  slaves.  The  little  learning  which  they  acquire  is  re¬ 
ceived  from  the  priests.  .  •. 

There  are  several  institutions  for  higher  education,  several 

schools  of  medicine,  of  law,  civil  engineering,  and  mining;  a 
normal  school  for  the  education  of  teachers,  a  conservatory 
of  music,  a  school  of  fine  arts,  an  institute  for  the  blind,  and 
another  for  the  deaf  and  dumb,  several  reformatory  schools, 
“d  t  imperial  Industrial  School  founded  ^  o^P* 
upon  the  plan  of  the  Cooper  Institute  of  *iew  1  oik  the  sag- 
gestion  for  it  having  been  derived  from  his  visit  to  that  place 
while  in  the  United  States.  There  is  also  a  bureau  ot  colo¬ 
nization  and  immigration  in  the  Department  of  Agriculture, 
ami  as  an  inducement  to  settlers,  the  Government  offers  tnem 
free  subsistence  and  shelter  at  the  boardinghouse i  in  E.o  de 
Janeiro  during  the  time  that  it  is  necessary  for  them  to  wait, 
■is  well  as  free  transportation  for  themselves  and  baggage 
from  Bio  to  any  part  of  the  country.  They  can  pnrchase 
land  on  credit,  the  first  payment  to  be  made  at  tbe  enc  o. 
second  year,  and  four  payments  during  the  succeeding  foui 
years  and  for  cash  they  receive  a  discount  of  twenty  pel  cent. 
For  the  first  season  the  Agricultural  Department  gives  hem 
•i  donation  of  necessary  implements  and  seeds,  and  an  alio  - 
•mce  of  twenty-five  cents  a  day  for  each  adult,  and  ten  cei 
Fr  eFh  child,  during  the  tat  six  months  »  -"he 

Department  of  Agriculture 
twelve  colonies,  comprising  a  population  of  sixty-two  hou- 
sand  people,  mostly  German.  The  number  of  immigrants  ar- 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


679 


riving  in  the  country  amounts  to  from  forty  to  fifty  thousand 
a  year. 

The  immense  area  of  Brazil,  stretching  as  it  does  from 
4°  30'  north  to  33°  south  latitude,  and  from  the  thirty-fifth  to 
the  seventy  -  third  degree  of  west  longitude,  affords  almost 


BRAZILIAN  COUNTRY-HOUSE. 


as  great  a  variety  of  climate  and  soil  as  can  be  found  in  the 
United  States,  and  the  two  countries  are  of  very  nearly  the 
same  area.  A  glance  at  the  map  will  show  the  extensive 
fluvial  system  of  Brazil.  The  many  large  rivers  that  trav- 


680 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


erse  the  interior  in  all  directions  are  navigable,  and  afford  un¬ 
equalled  facilities  for  commerce. 

Independent  of  the  agricultural  resources  which  the  cl 
mate  situation,  and  productiveness  of  the  soil  afford,  the 
era l  treasures  which  nature  has  stored  in  the  interior  are  very 
abundant.  Gold,  together  with  diamonds  “d  ™no“s  “the 
precious  stones,  is  found  in  many  localities,  and  the  resources 
oi  tlie  interior  of  the  country,  which  has  never  been  ex¬ 
plored,  are  only  a  subject  of  speculation.  The  population 11 
consists  of  about  twelve  million  people;  and  it  hasnot ^  - 

creased  any  during  the  last  twenty-five  years.  1  * 

lation  there  are  about  two  million  slaves  and  five  hum!  d 
thousand  Indians;  but  neither  the  moral  character  soc  a 
habits  nor  intellectual  attainments  of  this  class  afford  mate 
rial  of  value  wherewith  to  build  up  an  enlightened  and  pro¬ 
gressive  government.  The  natives  are  neither  enterprising 
thrifty6 nor  industrious.  The  system  of  slavery  has  taught 
them 'idleness,  and  the  fact  that  they  have  gaimff  them  1  v- 
ino-  without  work  has  taught  them  habits  of  extravagance. 
There  are  a  few  men  of  wealth  among  them  who  have  earned 
bv  their  own  efforts  the  money  which  they  have,  but  neai  y 
ail  have  either  inherited  it  or  secured  it  as  the  result  of  sla 
labor.  Brazil  will  never  be  a  great  or  prosperous  country  un¬ 
til  its  nonulation  is  increased  by  immigration. 

^Considerable  progress  has  been  made,  and  great  interest 
taken  in  railroad  development.  There  are  now  about  2o00 
miles ’in  operation,  800  of  which  are  owned  and  operated  by 
the  Government,  and  1700  by  private  corporations.  In  addi¬ 
tion  to  this,  about  U00  miles  are  under 

ztzttTJATC  trrXyed 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


6S1 


and  built  by  Brazilian  engineers,  but  the  principal  machinists 
and  locomotive  drivers  are  Scotchmen.  The  principal  rail¬ 
road  in  Brazil  is  the  one  named  in  honor  of  the  present  Em¬ 
peror,  Dom  Pedro  II.,  and  it  is  familiarly  known  as  the  “  Pe¬ 
dro  Segundo”  road.  This  line  runs  from  Rio  Janeiro  to  the 
most  important  towns,  and  through  a  country  which  produces 
coffee,  corn,  and  cattle.  There  are  now  about  500  miles  of 
track  in  operation.  It  is  a  favorite  route  for  tourists,  and 
affords  a  view  of  the  finest  mountain  scenery  in  the  empire. 


UP  THE  RIVER. 


682 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


The  prevailing  opinion  among  the  practical  men  of  Brazil 
•  ™  C  Pedro  II.  is  a  lovable  old  humbug.  Everybody 
"eg"  Emperor  with  a  feeling  of  reverence,  and  Ins 


DOM  PEDRO  II. 


character  “  — 

aid  Z 

old'man  wrapped  up  in  philanthropic  movements,  and  » 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


683 


ON  THE  WAY  TO  PETROPOLIS. 


constantly  engaged  in  doing  something  for  the  amelioration 
of  his  fellow-men ;  but  he  is  so  easily  imposed  upon,  and  his 
ideas  are  so  impracticable,  that  not  only  are  his  efforts  wasted, 
but  a  large  amount  of  money  with  which  a  great  deal  of 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


684  _ _ 

owe!  might  be  accomplished  is  expended  upon  chimerical 
mo  ecS  and  the  only  result  is  the  gratification  that  the  Em- 
en’i0yS  i„  performing  what  he  considers  to  be  a  duty 
He  is  credulous,  ingenuous,  and  trustful,  and  no  matter  what 
the  reputation  if  the  men  who  come  to  him  with  schemes  is 
he  nevlr  fails  to  be  interested  in  anything  that  wdl  tend  to 
the  improvement  or  welfare  of  his  people.  He  devotes  almost 
ids  entire  time  to  entertaining  impostors  and  developin 
schemes  that  are  suggested  to  him  by  the  people  who  take 
advantage  of  his  philanthropic  disposition  to  accomplish  then 

°' A  little  beyond  the  city  of  Petropolis  is  the  imperial  ha 

■•ears  a"0  hi  devoted  this  hacienda,  as  he  does  almost  every 
thiim  else,  to  philanthropy,  and  attempted  a  grand  plidam 
thropic  experiment  which  has  demonstrated  nothing  but 
Vinner  or’ s  own  lack  of  ability  as  a  manager. 

The  Princess  of  Brazil  has  three  children,  two  sons  an 
a  daughter ;  and  besides  these  the  Emperor  has  three  other 

grandchildren,  orphans  of  a  deceased 

their  o-randparents  and  are  a  great  source  of  comfort 

being  Mted 

11  1-iudher  disposition  towards  their  fellow-creatures, 
°or  hivin'"  a  more  earnest  desire  to  accomplish  something  or 
iie  cood  of  mankind,  than  Dom  Pedro  and  the  Ernpres , 
Chp  7-  much  more  practical  in  her  charity  than  he  and 
^  said  that  she  ^tly^s  W 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


685 


THE  EMPRESS  OF  BRAZIL. 


and  energy  of  her  daughter,  but  is  of  a  more  retiring  dispo¬ 
sition,  and  prefers  to  interest  herself  in  the  affairs  of  the 
household  rather  than  in  matters  of  State.  Every  week  or  so 
the  Emperor  gives  a  reception,  which  is  attended  by  all  the 
nobility  and  by  such  strangers  of  sufficient  dignity  to  receive 
royal  attention  as  happen  to  be  in  the  country.  The  Em- 


686 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


peror  is  particularly  fond  of  Americans,  and  he  considers  the 
United  States  the  model  country  of  the  world.  He  has  in¬ 
troduced  into  Brazil  a  great  many  ideas  that  he  received  dur¬ 
ing  his  visit  to  this  country,  and  has  organized  an  Agricult¬ 
ural  Department  and  a  Geological  Survey,  and  several  other 
branches  of  the  Government,  in  imitation  of  what  he  found 
in  the  United  States. 

The  Emperor  had  a  great  friend  in  Dr.  Gunning,  who  left  a 
high  place  in  the  medical  college  in  Edinburgh  about  twenty 
years  ago,  and  came  to  Brazil  for  his  health.  He  had  an 
ample  fortune,  and  determined  to  devote  his  time  and  money 
to  the  abolition  of  slavery.  With  this  object  in  view  he 
bought  thirty-five  or  forty  slaves  and  a  tract  of  land.  The 
negroes  for  miles  around  him  were  earning  large  wages  for 
theii;  owners,  but  the  doctor  had  a  theory  that  they  would 
pay  for  themselves,  and  buy  their  own  emancipation,  if  they 
had  an  opportunity.  So  he  commenced  a  system  of  book¬ 
keeping,  charging  each  slave  with  his  original  cost  and  the 
expense  of  his  maintenance,  and  crediting  him  with  the 
amount  of  labor  he  performed.  When  the  accounts  balanced, 
the  slave  was  to  be  set  free.  But  they  never  balanced. 

Dr.  Gunning  impressed  the  Emperor  with  the  great  bene¬ 
fits  of  this  system,  and  succeeded  in  inducing  him  to  adopt  it 
on  his  plantation.  But  the  negroes  are  not  fools.  They 
understand  very  well  that  they  are  better  off  with  such  mas¬ 
ters  as  Dr.  Gunning  and  the  Emperor  than  they  would  be  in 
the  condition  of  freedom,  and  they  work  so  unprofitably,  and 
make  the  expenses  of  their  maintenance  so  great,  that  they 
never  yet  made  enough  in  any  one  year  to  pay  for  their 
keeping. 

The  Emperor  spends  most  of  his  time  at  Petropolis,  and 
the  only  thing  that  can  induce  him  to  visit  the  city  of  Rio  is 
a  debate  in  Congress  on  the  slavery  question.  It  is  nearly 
four  centuries  since  Brazil  was  discovered,  and  it  has  always 
been  governed  by  the  same  family.  This  part  of  the  conti¬ 
nent  was  given  to  the  Portuguese  by  the  Pope.  When  they 
began  to  quarrel  with  the  Spaniards  over  the  possession  of 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


687 


the  discoveries  in  America,  the  Pope  drew  a  line  along  the 
sixty-fifth  parallel  of  longitude  and  decided  that  the  Portu¬ 
guese  should  have  all  that  part  of  the  world  lying  east,  and 
the  Spaniards  all  that  part  lying  west  of  it.  Therefore  Brazil 
became  a  viceroyalty  of  Portugal,  and  remained  so  until  1807, 
when  the  two  countries  changed  relations,  Brazil  becoming 
the  seat  of  government  and  Portugal  becoming  a  colony. 


DOM  PEDRO’S  PALACE  AT  PETROPOLIS. 


Portugal  temporized  with  Napoleon,  and  when  he  made  a 
raid  upon  that  nation  the  royal  family  of  Briganza  took  a 
step  which  astonished  all  Europe.  In  order  to  save  the  na¬ 
tion  from  the  bloodshed  and  devastation  that  followed  Napo¬ 
leon’s  avarice,  Dom  Joao  fled  from  Lisbon  to  Rio,  and  left 
Napoleon  in  peaceable  possession  of  Portugal. 


C88  THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA.  _ 

For  many  years  Joao  preferred  to  remain  in  Rio 

«  « 

peror  returned  to  Lisbon,  leaving  bis  son, 
be  throne  of  Brazil;  but  the  people  were  ill  satisfied 
this  and  a  bloodless  revolution  soon  after  occurred,  in  h  i 
Si  Pedro  I.  was  compelled  to  abdicate  ami  m  31  be  fle^d 
,o  Portugal,  leaving  his  son,  Dorn  Pedro H, 
fifteen,  as  Emperor,  who  governed  through  a  "bT  ^ 

Bra “  stoTand  be  i“  oved  by  the  people  as  few  mon- 

archs  have  ever  been.  ,  ami  is  infinitely  less  than 

TVlp  Finvieror’s  power  is  limited,  and  is  mnnueiv 

l,„;  i  -1?  .  -1««  ™“  ” 

praotically  fn“™^n^SMld  their  duties  are  similar  to 
^Hft^ers  of 

■  ;ran"t  lie  LT^or  economist,  and  spends  it  all,  the 
unseat  the  Emperor,  do  away  »i  ‘ 

siguia  of  royalty  and  nolnhty  amUo  of  the 

SOlt>-"ramp”  In  theory  they  are  for  upsetting  the 
Cue  and  «  the  Emperor  o«, 

goodness  and  bene%  olenc^anc^  the  administration  of 

they  are  a  great  dec  resident  who  would  he  an  auto- 

such  a  man  than  under  a  hiesnie  become  a  republic. 

' The  h« 

ideas  of  civil  and  ieli0ious  /  -t  -p  be  impossible  to 

she  comes  to  inherit  the  throne. 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


689 


The  Emperor  had  but  one  son,  and  his  only  living  child  is 
the  Princess  Isabella,  wife  of  the  Count  D’Eu,  a  grandson  of 
Louis  Philippe,  a  cousin  of  the  Count  of  Paris,  and  a  Prince 
of  the  House  of  Orleans.  This  French  husband  of  the  Brazil¬ 
ian  princess  is  said  to  be  an  uncommonly  good  fellow,  and  a 
man  of  considerable  ability.  He  holds  the  rank  of  major- 
general  in  the  army,  and  is  an  aide-de-camp,  or  grand  mar¬ 
shall,  under  the  Emperor.  The  princess  and  her  husband  live 
in  the  city  of  Rio  de  Janeiro  in  a  very  ordinary  way,  the  pal¬ 
ace  they  occupy  and  their  style  of  living  being  a  great  deal 
inferior  to  that  of  many  merchants  and  foreign  residents  of 
the  country.  They  have  a  plantation  near  Petropolis,  and 
spend  the  unhealthy  seasons  of  the  year  at  that  place. 

The  princess  is  now  about  thirty -five  or  forty  years  of  age, 
and  takes  a  great  deal  more  interest  in  the  affairs  of  State 
than  her  distinguished  father.  She  is  far  from  being  good- 
looking,  and  is  rather  masculine  in  disposition.  She  has  in¬ 
telligence  and  firmness,  and  is  often  compared  to  Queen  Eliza¬ 
beth.  During  the  absence  of  the  Emperor  in  the  United 
States  and  Europe  in  1876  and  1877,  she  assumed  his  author¬ 
ity,  and  upset  matters  so  generally  that  she  brought  on  a 
revolution  that  would  have  overturned  the  empire  entirely 
had  it  not  been  suppressed  in  time. 

In  dealing  wTith  this  outbreak  she  showed  an  ability  and 
determination  that  gave  her  a  great  reputation  among  polit¬ 
ical  leaders ;  but  the  condition  of  Brazil  is  changing  so  rap¬ 
idly  that  by  the  time  the  princess  comes  to  the  throne  by  the 
death  of  her  father,  the  Liberal  element  will  be  so  large  and 
powerful  that  they  will  prevent  her  from  assuming  authority. 
If  her  character  and  disposition  were  other  than  they  are  she 
might  be  tolerated  on  the  throne ;  but  their  experience  with 
her  during  her  father’s  absence  has  taught  the  people  that 
she  is  not  such  a  ruler  as  they  want,  and  the  contrast  be¬ 
tween  her  rigorous  rule  and  the  political  indifference  of  the 
Emperor  is  so  great  as  to  aggravate  the  dislike  of  the  people 
for  her.  In  addition  to  this,  the  princess  is  a  great  Church- 
woman,  and  attends  mass  every  morning  in  her  house,  spends 
44 


690 


THE  CATITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


a  great  deal  of  time  in  religious  devotion,  supports  a  large 
retinue  of  priests  and  friars,  who  are  said  to  be  the  only  peo¬ 
ple  who  have  any  influence  with  her,  and  does  a  great  deal  to 
strengthen  the  Catholic  Church  in  Brazil. 

The  Emperor  does  not  seem  to  know  of  the  unpopularity  of 
his  daughter.  He  does  not  seem  to  be  aware  that  she  pos¬ 
sesses  traits  and  a  disposition  in  striking  contrast  with  his 
own.  With  that  generous  charity  with  which  he  regards  all 
human  beings,  he  believes  that  she  is  as  liberal-minded  and  as 
philanthropic  as  himself,  and  his  dreams  are  never  disturbed 
by  any  thought  of  what  may  occur  after  his  death. 

As  everywhere  else  in  South  America,  the  Liberal  element 
in  Brazil  has  been  making  an  active  war  against  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church,  and  as  long  ago  as  1S70  a  law  was  passed 
abolishing  monastic  institutions  in  the  empire ;  but  that  legisla¬ 
tion  was  more  liberal  than  that  passed  and  carried  out  in  other 
South  American  countries,  for  it  gave  the  religious  orders  ten 
years  in  which  to  dispose  of  their  property  and  close  up  their 
affairs.  This  period  expired  in  1SS0,  and  very  little  has  been 
done  by  the  monks  and  nuns  towards  complying  with  the 
law.  In  18S1  an  attempt  was  made  to  forcibly  close  their  in¬ 
stitutions,  but  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  courts,  and  it  was 
only  recently  that  a  decision  was  rendered  sustaining  the  con¬ 
stitutionality  of  the  act  of  Congress  and  imposing  a  tax  upon 
all  real  estate  owned  by  the  religious  orders,  and  proceedings 
were  commenced  to  confiscate  and  sell  their  property  for  the 
non-payment  of  taxes. 

The  religious  orders  refused  to  recognize  the  right  of  the 
civil  power  to  dispose  of  their  property.  They  claim  that  the 
Pope  alone  has  authority  over  it;  and  their  writers  fill  the 
papers  with  thrilling  accounts  of  what  terrible  visitations 
have  fallen  upon  all  those  who  have  taken  the  property  of 
the  Church,  or  in  any  way  acquired  real  estate  which  once 
belonged  to  it,  in  other  lands. 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the  general  public  takes  very 
little  interest  in  the  dispute.  There  is  no  affection  or  respect 
felt  for  the  monastic  orders,  which  are  in  a  condition  of  de- 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


691 


cay,  ancl  their  approaching  extinction  by  the  death  of  the  few 
monks  and  nuns  remaining  is  viewed  with  in difference ;  but 
the  clergy  take  a  different  view  of  the  case.  They  expect  to 
inherit  the  revenues  derived  from  the  Church  property,  and 


THE  COLORED  SAINT. 


they  do  not  want  to  see  it  pass  into  the  hands  of  private  par¬ 
ties.  Until  ten  or  twelve  years  ago  the  political  leaders  en¬ 
couraged  the  superstitious  observances  of  the  Church  in  order 
to  secure  the  loyalty  of  the  priesthood,  but  the  growth  of 
Liberal  sentiment  has  been  so  great  that  the  Church  has  been 


692 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


robbed  of  the  terror  it  formerly  inspired  and  of  the  influence 
which  it  possessed,  and  there  has  been  much  encouragement 
given  to  Protestants  who  have  come  into  the  country  and  en¬ 
gaged  in  missionary  work. 

One  of  the  great  holidays  in  Brazil  is  the  feast  of  St. 
George,  the  patron  of  the  empire.  Each  city  and  province 
has  a  sort  of  deputy  patron,  whose  worship  is  duly  celebrated 
on  a  particular  day.  Saint  Sebastian  has  charge  of  the  city 
of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  and  in  his  honor  a  celebration  is  held  once 
a  year ;  but  when  the  annual  feast  of  St.  George  returns,  ev¬ 
ery  town  and  village  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  boun¬ 
dary  of  the  country  has  the  grandest  procession  and  demon¬ 
stration  of  the  season.  This  is  not  the  same  St.  George  who 
is  supposed  to  have  formerly  had  England  under  his  protec¬ 
tion,  but  an  entirely  different  individual.  Formerly  this  saint 
held  the  rank  of  colonel  in  the  army,  and  was  entitled  to  a 
yearly  pay  of  thirty-five  thousand  dollars,  which  the  priests 
drew  for  him  and  pretended  to  invest  in  jewels  and  dresses. 
A  few  years  ago  he  used  to  be  taken  through  the  streets  on 
horseback  on  his  anniversary  day,  surrounded  by  a  body¬ 
guard — a  regiment  composed  of  the  greatest  swells  of  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  who  acknowledged  him  as  their  commander,  and 
were  known  as  the  “  Imperial  Order  of  St.  George.”  An  old 
resident  told  me  about  an  instance  that  occurred  some  years 
ago,  when  the  attendant  who  had  charge  of  the  image  buckled 
Colonel  St.  George’s  sword  on  so  carelessly  that  it  dropped 
from  his  belt  and  wounded  a  priest.  The  aide-de-camp  and 
the  saint  were  both  tried  for  tjie  offence,  and  both  found 
guilty.  The  officer  was  punished  with  imprisonment,  and  the 
saint  fined  a  large  portion  of  his  salary. 

The  anniversary  of  Corpus  Christi  is  always  celebrated 
with  great  pomp  in  Rio,  and  with  a  procession  which  marches 
through  the  principal  streets.  At  its  head  is  usually  carried 
an  effigy  of  the  Saviour,  preceded  by  bands  of  singing  priests 
and  bearers  of  incense,  and  covered  with  a  canopy  carried  by 
the  Emperor  and  the  Count  D'Eu,  his  son-in-law,  and  the 
principal  ministers  of  state.  The  participation  of  the  Em- 


/ 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


695 


peror  in  this  ceremony  has  existed  from  time  immemorial, 
and  is  supposed  to  illustrate  the  obedience  of  the  civil  to  the 
ecclesiastical  power;  but  Dom  Pedro  hates  the  nonsense, 
and  last  year  he  declined  to  participate. 

The  money  used  in  Brazil  is  liable  to  give  a  stranger  the 
nightmare.  Imagine  yourself  presented  with  a  bill  for  thirty 
thousand  reis  after  eating  a  dinner  and  drinking  a  bottle  of 
wine  at  a  cafe.  One  is  apt  to  indulge  in  some  expressions 
of  astonishment,  even  if  he  is  too  honest  to  attempt  an  escape 
by  the  back  door.  But  composure  is  restored  when  it  is  dis¬ 
covered  that  a  “  reis  ”  is  worth  only  the  twentieth  part  of  a 
cent,  and  at  the  present  discount  of  Brazilian  money  such  a 
bill  amounts  only  to  about  seven  dollars. 

The  book-keepers  of  Brazil  have  a  hard  time  of  it,  however, 
as  the  reis  is  the  standard  value,  and  the  long  lines  of  figures 
Avhich  represent  the  commercial  transactions  of  the  ordinary 
mercantile  or  banking  house  each  day  are  a  severe  tax  upon 
the  mathematical  accuracy  and  ability  of  the  people.  For 
example,  $1,000,000  equals  about  4,000,000,000  reis,  and  the 
paper  currency  of  Brazil  represents  488,000,000,000  reis.  The 
commercial  statistics  of  Brazil  look  very  formidable ;  but  the 
people  simplify  matters  somewhat  by  using  the  term  millreis, 
which  means  a  thousand  reis. 

The  currency  of  the  country  consists  of  irredeemable  paper 
shinplasters,  the  smallest  denomination  being  five  hundred 
reis,  which  is  equal  to  about  thirteen  cents  in  gold.  Nickel 
and  copper  coins  are  used  for  change  below  that  sum,  the 
reis  being  a  very  minute  disk  of  copper.  There  is  no  gold 
or  silver  in  circulation ;  and  as  the  balance  of  trade  has  been 
largely  against  Brazil  of  recent  years,  there  is  not  coin  enough 
in  the  country  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  and  the 
bondholders  are  given  bills  on  London. 

There  is  no  wharfage  at  any  of  the  Brazilian  ports ;  vessels 
are  compelled  to  anchor  out  in  the  harbors,  which  are  usu¬ 
ally  good,  and  be  loaded  and  unloaded  by  means  of  lighters. 
Passengers  are  carried  to  and  fro  in  bongoes,  managed  by  a 
noisy  and  naked  boatman,  who  inspires  alarm  in  the  breast 


696 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


of  the  nervous  passenger,  who  imagines  this  gang  of  savage¬ 
looking  maniacs  are  cannibals  howling  for  his  blood.  The 
wardrobe  of  a  bongo  usually  consists  of  a  dilapidated  straw 
hat  and  a  pair  of  cotton  drawers  amputated  at  the  thighs. 


CARRYING  COFFEE  TO  TIIE  STEAMER. 

These  drawers  are  a  degree  farther  from  decency  than  the 
bathing-trunks  small  boys  wear  at  the  sea-side.  The  bongoes 
are  shrewd  fellows,  and  make  bargains  easily,  but  are  hard  to 
settle  with  when  the  work  is  done.  They  agree  to  take  you 
and  vour  trunk  ashore  for  a  dollar,  but  when  you  reach  the 
custom-house  they  demand  twice  as  much,  with  an  additional 
dollar  for  Pippo,  who  helped  carry  the  trunk  down  the  gang- 
wav.  People  who  remain  on  the  vessel  amuse  themselves  by 
throwing:  small  coins  into  the  water  for  the  boatmen  to  dive 
after.  If  you  toss  a  silver  quarter  overboard,  a  dozen  or 
more  will  plunge  after  it,  and  one  of  them  will  have  it  in 
his  mouth  before  it  reaches  the  bottom. 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


697 


The  most  noticeable  thing  that  strikes  one  when  he  lands 
at  one  of  the  Brazilian  ports  is  the  extraordinary  economy 
observed  in  the  matter  of  wearing  apparel.  The  children  in 
the  streets  up  to  eight  or  ten  years  are  usually  entirely  naked, 
playing  in  groups  around  the  door-ways,  and  in  the  corners 
sheltered  from  the  sun.  Nearly  evefy  woman  you  meet  has 
a  big  basket  of  something  or  other  on  her  head,  or  a  naked 
baby  in  her  arms;  the  number  of  babies  to  be  seen  at  the 
windows  or  in  the  streets  is  astonishing.  The  yellow-fever 
and  other  epidemics  carry  olf  a  large  percentage  of  the  popu¬ 
lation  every  summer,  but  the  increase  from  natural  causes 
more  than  keeps  pace  with  the  mortality.  When  the  girls 


MAEKET- PLACE  IN  COUNTRY  TOWN. 


get  to  be  eight  or  ten  years  of  age  they  put  on  a  white  cotton 
tunic,  which  hangs  loosely  from  the  shoulders,  and  the  women 
wear  a  plain  white  chemise,  with  the  arms  and  shoulders  bare. 
The  boys  and  men  have  cotton  trousers  or  drawers,  and,  if 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


698  _ _ 

they  are  prosperous,  add  a  speckled  skirt  to  their  wardrobe 
which  bancs  loosely  over  the  pantaloons,  and  flaps  in  the 
breeze  with  cheerful  W  A  society  for  the  ~ge“ent 
of  modesty  among  the  men.  women,  and  children  ot  Biazd 
would  find  a  fruitful  field  for  m,ss.onary  work.  They  an 
onri  l  vp  like  animals:  dux  xue  yuuugot 
‘sense  of  shame,  and  gather  their  scanty  drapery 
,s  the  stranger  passes.  Among  their  own  kind  the)  are 
regardless  oft  1m  proprieties  ot  civilization  as  the  -n gy  dogs 
which  stretch  out  in  the  sun  at  their  feet.  The  priests,  und 
whose  control  they  yield  an  absolute 

■mthoritv  here  is  even  greater  than  in  Home,  are  said  to  teac 
no  Sons  of  chastity  or  nmdesty,  but  to  practise  a  licentious- 
“  s  Xch  makes  one  shudder  when  he  beam  common  anec- 

^snn  always  rises  and  sets  very  suddenly  in  the  tropics 
Thero  is  no  “  rosy  blush  of  morn  to  herald  the  coming 
new-born  day,”  and  so  on,  n«r  is  there  a  gorgeous  glow  in  the 
west  when  the  twilight  comes;  but  old  Sol  gets  up  m  the 
morniiw  and  goes  to  bed  at  night  without  any  ceremony  and 
“"startifng  suddenness.  You  atvaken  at  he  nmse^ 

P  irU  in  the  street,  find  it  dark  as  midnight,  with  the  staib 
more  brilliant  than  you  ever  saw  them  at  home,  turn  over, 
do/e  a  little  And  in  a  few  moments  jump  up,  supposing 
to  be  noonday.  The  sun  jumps  into  the ,  * t  ont  of  the  dark- 
ness  and  drops  below  the  horizon  as  if  he  had  been  • 
There  are  only  two  periods  in  the  twenty-four  hou^-mid^ 
nioht  and  hi "li  noon.  There  is  gas  in  most  of  the  laine 
towns  but  it  is  seldom  used  in  any  except  the  finest  modern 
residences.  Candles  or  kerosene  lamps  throw  light  upon  to- 

Stops  to  gossip  on  the  corner,  and  the  consequence  is  stron0 
°aOn°efvery  blockTs  ^ policeman  or  watchman,  whose  business 


“  SEEENO-O-O-O-O-O  1  SERENO-O-O-O-O-O 


E10  DE  JANEIEO. 


Y01 


is  to  sing  out  at  certain  intervals  to  inform  the  inhabitants 
what  o’clock  it  is,  and  that  all  is  well.  Like  the  fakirs  in  the 
streets  during  the  day,  the}7  have  a  most  melancholy  tone  in 
their  voices,  and  to  the  stranger  their  announcements  sound 
like  the  cry  of  a  lost  soul — “  Sereno-o-o-o-o-o ;  Sereno-o-o-o-o-o ; 
Las  diez  y  media  y  Sereno-o-o-o-o-o !” 

The  text-books  on  oratory  that  were  used  in  old  times  gave 
the  statement  that  Demosthenes  could  make  an  audience 
weep  or  laugh  at  will  by  simply  uttering  “  Mesopotamia,” 
but  he  could  not  have  put  more  pathos,  more  lingering  agony, 
than  the  tropical  policemen  in  these  simple  words— “All’s  se¬ 
rene  ;  all’s  serene !  It  is  a  day  and  a  half-midnight,  and  all’s 
serene !” 

The  stranger  never  fails  to  hear  these  announcements,  for 
two  very  good  reasons ;  first,  because  his  bed  is  as  hard  as 
the  racks  upon  which  the  Roman  tyrants  used  to  torture 
early  Christians ;  and,  second,  it  is  always  occupied  by  a 
colony  of  the  most  vigorous  pests  that  ever  drank  human 
blood.  At  the  hotels  all  the  servants  are  men.  They  do  the 
work  of  chamber-maids,  cooks,  porters,  and  dining-room  wait¬ 
ers,  wash  the  dishes,  and  everything  but  washing  and  ironing. 

The  Brazilian  rises  early  in  the  morning,  to  do  the  greater 
part  of  his  work  in  the  cool  of  the  day.  He  drinks  a  cup  of 
strong  coffee,  eats  a  roll,  and  perhaps  an  egg,  and  then  goes 
to  his  store  or  office,  from  which  he  returns  at  twelve  to  his 
breakfast — the  most  elaborate  meal  of  the  day.  It  begins 
with  soup  and  ends  with  cheese,  dulces,  and  coffee,  like  the 
dinner  of  the  temperate  zone.  He  has  a  fish,  a  chop  or  steak, 
an  omelette,  and  a  salad,  but  no  vegetables.  Then  he  lies 
down  for  a  nap,  after  which,  about  four  o’clock,  he  returns  to 
business,  and  remains  often  as  late  as  eight  or  nine  o’clock. 
His  dinner  is  a  repetition  of  his  breakfast,  except  that  he  has 
vegetables  and  a  roast  or  fowl.  He  takes  a  walk  in  the  plaza 
with  his  family  after  dinner  and  retires  early,  if  he  does  not 
go  to  the  club  or  gaming-table.  The  people  are  inveterate 
gamblers.  There  is  no  more  disgrace  attached  to  attend¬ 
ance  upon  the  faro-table  or  the  roulette-board  than  attends 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


702 

h^rU'sundT  some  of  them  breed game *  chtcltens, 
and  carry  them  to  the  pit  under  their  priestly  lobes. 


SLAVE  QUARTERS  IN  THE  COUNTRY. 


The  great  problem  for  Brar.il  to  solve  in  the  f«tureos  tha 
of  labor.  With  the  gradual  emanation  of  ^ 

It  has  been  demonstrated  beyond  a  doubt,  even 
ESS  of^the 

cipated  negroes  are  ne  ^  |.flei,ent  jn  this  respect  from 
care  of  themselves.  Tl  .  because  their  ignorance 

the  freedmen  of  the  t  lence  is  much  m0re  absolute, 

is  much  greater.  Thei  1  t  t  ancl  instruction 

and  they  “'i-Jbvs  man  "of  Ihf  slaves  in  the  United 
^es"  From  one  end  of  Brazil  to  the  other  there  is  scarcely 


EIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


703 


a  negro  slave,  or  one  who  has  ever  been  enslaved,  that  can 
read  and  write.  Their  ignorance  is  so  dense  that  they 
scarcely  know  anything  of  the  work  ontside  of  the  cabin  in 
which  they  live ;  and  the  policy  of  the  slave-holders,  aided 
by  the  priests,  has  been  to  keep  them  in  this  condition  as  far 
as  possible.  As  long  as  they  have  attended  mass,  and  said 
so  many  prayers  a  day,  the  priests  have  been  satisfied  with 
their  condition,  and  their  owners  and  masters  have  never 
thought  of  anything  but  to  get  as  much  work  out  of  them 
as  was  consistent  with  their  strength. 

The  political  issue  in  Brazil  to-day,  as  has  been  the  case 
for  many  years,  is  the  abolition  of  slavery.  Ten  years  ago 
the  two  political  parties 
were  as  wide  apart  on  this 
question  as  the  Abolition¬ 
ists  and  Democrats  were 
in  the  United  States  in 
I860 ;  but  the  emancipa¬ 
tion  policy  has  been  rap¬ 
idly  growing  in  favor,  the 
necessity  and  justness  of 
the  movement  have  be¬ 
come  almost  universally 
recognized,  and  the  two 
political  parties  differ  only 
upon  the  measures  by 
which  the  result  shall  be 
accomplished.  There  are 
very  few  people  in  Brazil 
to-day  who,  when  asked 
the  direct  question,  will 
advocate  the  perpetuation 
of  human  slavery ;  but  those  who  have  property  in  slaves 
naturally  resist  any  movement  that  will  deprive  them  of  its 
value  without  some  compensation. 

‘  A  law  was  passed  in  1881  which  declared  free  all  negroes 
and  their  children  who  should  be  imported  into  the  empire 


704 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMERICA. 


after  that  date;  but  it  was  never  executed,  and  m  spite  of 
it  the  slave-trade  increased,  reaching  prior  to  1851  enormous 
proportions.  Fifty  thousand  negro  slaves  were  imported  in  a 
single  year  when  the  trade  was  at  its  height.  The  effective  in¬ 
tervention  of  the  British  Government  in  1851  broke  up  the  for¬ 
eign  trade,  and  from  that  time  the  friends  of  the  slave  m  Brazil 
were  able  to  make  some  headway  against  their  opponents. 

The  first  legislation  enforced  towards  the  abolition  of  sla¬ 
very  was  enacted  in  1871,  in  what  was  known  as  the  Free 
Birth  Law,”  which  was  framed  by  the  Emperor  himself  and 
adopted  by  Congress  largely  through  his  own  personal  efforts 
This  laid  the  axe  at  the  root  of  the  tree,  and  provided  that 
human  bondage  in  Brazil  should  end  with  the  present  gener¬ 
ation  Every  child  born  since  the  passage  of  the  act  is  fiee. 
but  the  owner  of  its  mother  is  required  to  educate  and  sup¬ 
port  it  until  twenty-one  years  old,  being  enBtled  to  the 
suits  of  its  labor  during  the  same  tune.  The  la  v  also  pro¬ 
vided  that  slaves  should  be  credited  with  their  a  or  an  a 
service  performed  over  and  above  a  given  maximum  should 
be  considered  as  a  surplus  and  credited  against  the  value  of 
the  slave,  in  order  that  those  who  had  energy  and  am  atio 
mio-ht  in  this  manner  earn  or  purchase  their  own  freedom , 
•md  bv  a  further  provision  all  slaves  reaching  the  age  of 
sixtv-five  were  free,  but  could  look  to  their  old  masters  for 
support  in  case  they  were  in  a  condition  ot  disability 

Tu'  law,  however  well  intended,  proved  impracticable,  and 
could  not  be  generally  enforced.  Forgeries  were  commit¬ 
ted  upon  the  records  of  birth,  both  by  the  slaves  and  the 
master’s.  The  latter  refused,  or  fixed  so  high  a  valuation  that 
very  few  were  able  to  earn  their  freedom ;  they  neglect 
educate  the  children  as  required  by  law  so  that i  even 
voumr  man  gained  his  freedom  he  was  not  fitted  to  enjoy 
or  ^ereise  the  right  of  citizenship.  The  old  men  and  women 
were  turned  off  the  plantations  to  beg  or  find  refuge  » 

their  sanitary  condition  and  ill-tieateci  mei 


RIO  DE  JANEIRO. 


705 


the  law  was  to  demoralize  the  laboring  element.  It  proved 
a  disaster  to  the  slaves  as  well  as  to  their  masters,  and  dis¬ 
turbed  the  political  condition  of  the  country. 

There  is  no  slave-market  in  Rio  Janeiro,  nor  has  there  been 
one  for  several  years,  all  the  transactions  in  human  flesh 
being  conducted  privately ;  but  there  are  agents  who  buy 
and  sell  on  commission,  like  the  real  estate  or  cattle  dealers 
of  the  United  States. 


MILITARY  MEN. 


There  is  a  small  number  of  negroes  in  Brazil  from  Minas,  a 
territory  on  the  west  coast  of  Africa,  who  differ  from  all 
other  blacks.  They  are  of  immense  frame,  capable  of  great 
endurance,  display  a  remarkable  degree  of  intelligence,  are 
very  clannish,  speaking  a  language  among  themselves  unin¬ 
telligible  to  others,  and  practising  religious  rites  similar  to 
those  of  Mohammedanism,  from  which  they  have  never  been 
allured  by  the  tempting  ceremonies  of  the  Catholic  Church. 

As  slaves  the  Minas  natives  are  valued  at  more  than  double 
the  price  of  ordinary  negroes,  and  as  freedmen  they  are  use- 
45 


706  . 


THE  CAPITALS  OF  SPANISH  AMEKICA. 


ful,  industrious,  and  excellent  citizens,  and  will  work  of  then 
own  accord.  No  other  blacks  exercise  the  regular  \  ankee 
thrift  in  saving  their  earnings  and  in  economizing  their  re¬ 
sources.  They  are  ingenious  as  well  as  intelligent,  and  make 
first-class  mechanics  as  well  as  laborers  These  Minas  have 
freqnently  purchased  their  freedom  and  returned  to  Africa 
but  those  that  go  invariably  come  back  to  Brazil,  beieia 
instances  are  reported  in  which  they  have  chartered  vessels 
for  this  purpose,  and  have  even  brought  over  fiends  and 
kinsmen  of  their  own  across  the  Atlantic  to  settle  in  Brazil. 
The  wisest  thinkers  of  the  country  advocate  the  oiganiza  ion 
of  immigration  companies  for  the  purpose  of  bringing  cargoes 
of  these  people  from  Africa,  not  as  slaves,  but  as  freemen 
to  supply  the  demand  for  labor  in  the  country.  y 
much  preferable  to  the  Chinese  or  the  coolies  as  laborers,  an 
arc  particularly  adapted  to  the  Brazilian  climate. 

_  tll„  11th  of  Mav  1888,  the  Brazilian  Par- 

Note  to  Second  Edition— On  1  *  }(  wbicb  wcnl  into  effect 

liament  passed  an  uncondilionn  cmaJ'(  1  itched' in  Brazil  The  growth 
immediately ;  therefore  slavery  is >  total  X  a bo dish, «1  . n ^ 

of  the  republican  movenwn.  overthrow 

ing  the  death  of  the  universally  beloved i  and  ^  anfl  violent  tbat 

the  monarchy.  Their  demon >tr.i  ioiib  '  orobjbited  by  the  police,  and 
all  public  meetings  for  political  purport  .  ^  secretly  The  aged 

5=T  Wi.  be  ™  a*.  * 

have  that  close  Ins  long  and  noble  career. 


INDEX 


A. 

Aconcagua  Mountain,  Chili,  509. 

Agua  Volcano,  Guatemala,  67. 

Alpaca,  the,  427. 

Alvarado,  Conqueror  of  Guatemala,  64. 

Alvarado,  George,  founder  of  the  city 
of  San  Salvador,  179. 

Andes,  bridges  in  the,  441  ;  explora¬ 
tions  in  the,  438;  over  the,  506,  510, 
513;  scenery  in  the,  409. 

Antigua,  63,  72. 

Arequipa,  420. 

Argentine  Republic,  agricultural  area 
of,  584;  Americans  in,  562;  beef  ex¬ 
ports  of,  586,  587  ;  Catholic  Church 
in,  558,  568;  cattle  in,  579,  582;  cat¬ 
tle  ranges  in,  534;  commerce  of,  552, 
583,586;  decay  of  Romanism  in,  558; 
discovery  of,  543;  educational  sys¬ 
tem  of,  557 ;  England’s  trade  with, 
553  ;  foreigners  in,  581 ;  France’s 
trade  with,  552;  geographies  incor¬ 
rect  concerning,  551 ;  growth  of,  550 : 
horsemen  of,  556,  570,  574  ;  horses 
in,  589;  immigration  to,  581;  Italian 
population  of,  582;  land  leasing  in, 
534;  libel  laws  of,  555;  map  of,  580; 
pamperos  in,  544,  548;  peculiar  cus¬ 
toms  of,  544,  547,  548,  555,  556,  559, 
560,  565,  569-571,  576,  578,590;  Prot¬ 
estant  work  in,  558,  568;  railroad 
system  of,  581,  582;  ranches  in,  579, 
582,  588 ;  resources  of,  553,  579,  583 ; 
Roca,  President  of,  568,  569 ;  Rosas, 
the  tyrant,  President  of,  549,  572; 
Sarmien  to,  ex-President  of,  557;  so¬ 
cial  conditions  in,  565;  steamers  to 


Paraguay  from,  566;  steamship  fa¬ 
cilities  of,  551,  566;  suffrage  in,  581; 
United  States’  trade  with,  553;  uni¬ 
versities  of,  556;  wheat  product  of, 
554,  583 ;  women  physicians  of,  561 ; 
wool  product  of  the,  585 ;  Yankee 
school-teachers  in,  557. 

Arica,  battle  of,  353. 

Aristocracy,  Mexican,  3,  5,  17,  32. 

Army,  Costa  Rican,  206. 

Asuncion,  architecture  in,  640;  mar¬ 
ket-place  of,  642;  palace  of  Lopez 

.  in,  638;  ruins  in,  637. 

Aztecs,  religion  of,  32. 

B. 

Bahia  Blanca,  547. 

Balmaceda,  President  of  Chili,  495. 

Bananas,  shipment  of  from  Costa 
Rica,  198. 

Banda  Occidental,  592;  Oriental,  ibid. 

Banner,  Pizarro’s,  276. 

Barillas,  President  of  Guatemala,  113. 

Barranquilla,  port  of,  231. 

Barrios,  appeals  for  approval  to  for¬ 
eign  nations,  107 ;  becomes  President 
of  Guatemala,  81;  coup -d’etat  of, 
103;  death  and  will,  his,  112;  per¬ 
sonal  character  of,  100;  progressive 
policy  of,  82 ;  Protestant  work  in 
Guatemala,  his,  86;  tragedy  at  thea¬ 
tre  through  banner  bearing  name  of, 
111;  visits  the  United  States,  107. 

Barrios,  Mrs.,  residence  in  New  York, 
87. 

Blanco,  Guzman,  269,  286,  291 ;  statues 
of,  258,  272,  287. 


708 


INDEX. 


Bogota,  altitude  of,  244  ;  journalism 
in,  249;  journey  to,  238;  merchants 
of,  250;  miraculous  image  of,  254; 
policemen  in.  247 ;  population  of, 
245;  society  in,  248. 

Bogran,  President  of  Honduras,  117. 

Bolivar,  Simon,  Venezuela,  260. 

Bolivia,  mineral  wealth  of,  445;  rail¬ 
road  to,  419,  438. 

Boulevard,  Mexican,  39. 

Boulton,  Bliss  &  Dallett,  steamers  ol 
to  Venezuela,  257. 

Brazil,  commerce  of,  675;  customs  pe¬ 
culiar  to,  064,  608,  070,  072,  Oil, 
070,  092,  090,  701 ;  discovery  of,  087 ; 
emancipation  in,  704;  Empress  of, 
084;  ex-Confcderates  in,  706;  tight 
against  the  Catholic  Church  in.  090; 
German  immigration  to,  706;  habits 
of  the  people  of,  701;  history  of, 
687;  holidays  in,  092;  hotels  of,  673; 
humming-birds  of,  008;  imperial 
family  of,  089  ;  intemperance  in, 
000;  Isabella,  Princess  of,  689;  na¬ 
tives  of  Minas  in.  705;  negroes  in, 
ibid. ;  nobility  of,  676;  policemen  of. 
098;  politics  in,  088,  703;  railroad 
system  of,  680;  school  system  of, 
078;  slavery  problem  in,  702;  sun¬ 
rise  in,  698;  sunset  in,  ibid. 

Buenos  Ayres,  American  dentists  in, 
560;  banks  of.  554;  cathedral  of.  , 
500;  commercial  disadvantages  of. 
549;  enterprise  in,  o49.  ->59 ;  Ilale. 
Samuel  B.,  merchant  of,  562;  Hal¬ 
sey,  Thomas  Lloyd,  introducer  of 
sheep  and  cattle  into,  563;  harbor  of,  ! 
548;  hotels  of,  566;  landing  at.  548; 
municipal  statistics  of,  559;  newspa¬ 
pers  of.  555  ;  origin  of,  543  ;  pho¬ 
tographers  in,  560;  post-office  of, 
559;  theatres  of,  555;  tomb  of  Saint- 
Martin  in.  566  ;  voyage  to.  543  ; 
Wheelwright,  W  m.,  builder  of  first 
railroad  in, 562 ;  Winslow,  the  forger, 
in,  562. 

C. 

Caceres,  General,  392,  395. 

Callao,  city  of,  417;  painter,  the,  416; 
port  of,  353. 


Camino  Real  (Royal  Highway),  Co¬ 
lombia,  240. 

Caracas,  Americans  in,  282 ;  earth¬ 
quakes  in,  265;  railroad  to,  261 ;  sit¬ 
uation  of,  265. 

Carera,  Dictator  of  Guatemala,  80. 

Carriages,  Mexican,  39. 

Cartago,  Costa  Rica,  destruction  of, 

1  -*• 


200. 

Carthagena,  city  of,  226;  cathedral  of, 
228;  fortifications  of,  231;  Iuquisi- 
tion  in,  227 ;  Kingsley  s  (t  harles)  de¬ 
scription  of,  220;  miraculous  pulpit 
of,  228;  preserved  saint  of,  229. 

Carts,  peculiar,  Nicaragua,  142. 

Castro,  Don  Jesus  Maria,  222. 

Central  America,  cable  telegraph  in, 
107. 

Cerro  del  Pasco,  mines  of.  404. 

Chamber  of  Deputies,  Mexican,  21. 
Chapultepec,  castle  of,  5, 43. 

Charity,  Mexican,  56. 

Chasquis,  vocation  of.  440. 

|  Chili,  army  of  Peru  in,  392;  Balmace- 
da.  President  of.  495;  character  of 
the  people  of.  458, 472, 475, 480 ;  coal- 
mines  in,  488;  commerce  of.  455,457; 
climate  of,  464;  coca-chewing  in, 
479-  customs  peculiar  to,  458,  461- 
404.  409.  472,  475,  480.  4*3.  484,  498; 
earthquakes  in.  4-83,  499;  English 
colony,  an,  542;  farming  in,  489, 
602;  female  street -car  conductors 
of.  458.  461;  horseback  -  riding  in, 
503;  hotels  of,  472;  intemperance 
in.  458;  Irish  characteristics  of  the 
people  of.  474;  journey  from,  to  Ar¬ 
gentine  Republic,  506,  510  ;  Liber¬ 
al  party  in,  493  ;  marriage  in,  494; 
Meiggs,  Henry,  in,  463.  407;  nomen¬ 
clature  peculiar  to,  483;  penitentas 
of,  402;  peonage  in,  489,  502;  plun¬ 
der  from  Peru  in, 471;  political  strug¬ 
gle  in.  493;  Presidential  election  in, 
495;  Protestantism  in. 496;  railway 
facilities  of.  461.  480;  Romanism  in, 
493  ;  rotos  of,  479;  saddle  of,  504  , 
scenery  in.  509;  “  Senor  May  in, 
499;  shoes  of  natives  of,  484;  shops 
of,  465 ;  soldiers  of,  352,  479 ;  Stars 


INDEX. 


709 


and  Stripes  in,  454;  steamship  com¬ 
munication  with,  456,  480,  488;  su¬ 
perstition  in,  499;  vanity  of  people 
of,  476;  women  of,  458,  461,  472, 484, 
487,  498. 

Chimborazo,  Mount,  Ecuador,  309, 320. 

Coca-leaves,  use  of  among  rabonas  of 
Peru,  349. 

Colombia,  aborigines  of,  244;  Congress 
of,  255;  government  of,  248;  mines 
of,  230;  Nunez,  President  of,  256; 
orchids  in,  252 ;  peculiar  customs 
of,  243,  245,  247,  252;  Romish  super¬ 
stitions  in,  228,  254;  steamship  line 
to,  225;  transportation  in,  246. 

Comayagua,  city  of,  Honduras,  115, 119. 

Congress,  Mexican,  21. 

“Cordillera,”  steamship,  wreck  of, 
524. 

Corinto,  port  of,  138. 

Cortez,  descendants  of,  6. 

“  Costa  del  Balsimo,”  forest  of,  192. 

Costa  Rica,  archbishop  expelled  from, 
219;  banana-trade  of,  198;  Congress 
of,  221 ;  cruising  along,  196 ;  death 
processions  in,  220;  educational  sys¬ 
tem  of,  218;  ex-Confederates  in,  200; 
Fernandez,  President  of,  221;  flow¬ 
ers  peculiar  to,  198;  funeral  customs 
in,  220;  Government  of,  221;  Guar- 
dia,  President  of,  205;  intelligence 
of  the  people  of,  218;  morals  of  the 
people  of,  220;  national  musical  in¬ 
struments  of,  214;  ox-carts  in,  212; 
peculiar  customs  of,  198,  200,  207, 
212-214,  216,220;  politeness  of  the 
people  of,  218;  Protestant  work  in, 
219;  railroads  in,  199,  208;  railroad 
building  in,  205;  religious  condition 
of,  219 ;  resources  of,  223 ;  revolu¬ 
tion  in,  207 ;  Soto,  De,  Don  Bernar¬ 
do,  President  of,  222 ;  transportation 
facilities  in,  212;  women  of,  214. 

Cotopaxi  Volcano,  Ecuador,  320. 

Cousino,  Donna  Isadora,  Croesus  of 
Chili,  487. 

Crosses  by  the  way-side,  Nicaragua, 

141. 

Cuaca  dance,  the,  469. 

Cura9oa,  Island  of,  295. 


D. 

Dahlgren,  Mrs.,  anecdote  of,  372. 

“  Deck  trading  ”  in  Peru,  347. 

Delgrado,  General,  leader  of  revolu¬ 
tion  in  Honduras,  120. 

Dentists,  American,  in  Buenos  Ayres, 
560. 

Deputies,  Chamber  of,  Mexican,  21. 

Desert  of  Peru,  417. 

Destruction  of  Cartago,  Costa  Rica, 

200. 

Devastation  of  Lima,  365,  391. 

Diaz,  career  of,  30 ;  inauguration  of  as 
President  of  Mexico,  21 ;  religious 
tolerance  in  Mexico,  his,  59. 

Diplomatic  complication  iu  Guatema¬ 
la,  103. 

Discovery  of  Argentine  Republic,  543; 
of  Brazil,  687. 

Dom  Pedro  II. ,  love  of  the  people  for, 
682. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  sacks  Caracas, 
Venezuela,  262. 

E. 

Earthquakes  in  Chili,  483,  499;  in  Ec¬ 
uador,  324;  in  Guatemala,  73;  in 
Nicaragua,  164  ;  in  San  Salvador, 
187,  192. 

Easter  Sunday  in  Mexico,  50. 

Ecuador,  army  of,  319  ;  Caamano, 
President  of,  309,  341  ;  chandny 
(wind)  in,  309;  earthquakes  in,  324; 
peculiarities  of  people  of,  301,  305, 
313,  317,  319,  326,  328,  330,  334,  336, 
346,  350  ;  peddlers  in,  317  ;  postal 
facilities  in,  316;  railroads  in,  307; 
revolutions  in,  341;  Romish  Church 
in,  306,  313,  319,  332,  334,  348;  so¬ 
cial  condition  of,  377;  telegraph  in, 
308;  transportation  in,  315. 

Educational  system  of  Costa  Rica,  218. 

El  Gran  Chaco,  description  of,  657. 

Emancipation  in  Brazil,  704. 

Empress  of  Brazil,  charity  of,  684. 

Enterprise  in  Buenos  Ayres,  549,  559. 

Evans,  W.  D.,  Montevideo,  story  of, 
605. 

Exposition  buildings  in  Santiago,  470. 

I  Eyes  of  Inca  mummies,  415. 


710 


INDEX. 


F. 

Falkland  Islands,  chief  use  of  land  in 
the,  522. 

Farming  in  Chili,  489,  502. 

Fenton,  Doctor,  in  Patagonia,  537. 

Fernandez,  President  of  Costa  Rica, 
221. 

Filth  of  Rio  de  Janeiro,  6G2. 

First  capital  of  Guatemala,  64. 

Fleas  in  the  tropics,  260. 

Flowers,  peculiar,  in  Costa  Rica,  198. 

Foreigners  in  Argentine  Republic,  581. 

Fortifications  of  Oarthagena,  Colom¬ 
bia,  condition  of,  231. 

Founding  of  Guayaquil,  304. 

France,  her  trade  with  Argentine  Re¬ 
public,  552. 

Francia,  “Perpetual  President”  of 
Paraguay,  623. 

Fuego  Volcano,  Guatemala,  71. 

Funeral  customs  in  Costa  Rica,  220; 
in  Mexico,  34. 

Fur-bearing  animals  in  Patagonia,  539. 

G. 

Gaucho,  the,  570,  574. 

Gonzalez.  Gil,  Couqueror  of  Nicara¬ 
gua,  154. 

Gonzalez,  President  of  Mexico,  22,  26. 

Good  Friday,  celebration  of  in  Mexico, 
49. 

Government  of  Nicaragua,  169. 

Grace,  M.  P.,  his  Peruvian  contracts, 
401,  403. 

Grau,  Admiral,  in  Peru,  437. 

Grenada,  city  of,  165. 

Guadalupe,  cathedral  of,  18 ;  legend 
of,  ibid. ;  treaty  at,  21. 

Guanaco,  the,  427,  640. 

Guatemala,  assassination  plots  in.  88; 
Barrios,  President  of,  75,  81 :  Care- 
ra.  Dictator  of.  80;  Church  domina¬ 
tion  in,  79;  Church  overthrown  in, 
81 ;  cochineal  cultivation  in, 75;  com¬ 
mercial  condition  of.  98;  costumes 
of  natives  of,  89  ;  couriers  in.  92  ; 
customs  peculiar  to,  88,  97-99;  dip¬ 
lomatic  complication  in,  103;  earth¬ 
quakes  in.  73  ;  first  capital  of,  64  ; 
Hill,  Rev.  John  C.,  missionary  in, 


85;  hotels  in,  96;  military  law  in, 
95  ;  monasteries  in,  74  ;  Morazan, 
Dictator  of,  80;  Old,  63;  peasants’ 
costumes  in,  88,  90;  photographers 
in,  98;  policemen  in,  95;  Protestant 
work  in,  84;  railroad  system  of,  99; 
ruins  in,  67;  schools  in,  82;  second 
city  of,  70;  view  of  the  city  of,  61; 
volcanic  eruption  in,  67. 

Guayaquil,  appearance  of,  300;  com¬ 
merce  of,  330 ;  foreigners  in,  305, 
311;  founding  of,  304;  journey  to 
Quito  from,  309,  318;  latitude  and 
longitude  of,  299;  street-cars  in,  300, 
302;  tropical  vegetation  near,  302, 
313. 

Gunning,  Doctor,  in  Brazil,  686. 

II. 

Hacks,  Mexican,  40. 

Hale,  Samuel  B.,  Buenos  Ayres,  562. 

Ilall,  Henry  C.,  U.  S.  Minister  to  Gua¬ 
temala,  107. 

Halsey,  Thomas  Lloyd,  Buenos  Ayres, 
563. 

Harbor  of  Buenos  Ayres,  548;  of  Val¬ 
paraiso.  454. 

Hats,  Panama,  345. 

Highest  town  in  the  world,  423. 

1 1 iTl.  Rev.  John  C.,  missionary  in  Gua¬ 
temala,  85. 

Honda,  port  of,  234,  238. 

IIonduras.agricullurein.122;  Bogran, 
President  of,  117;  climate  of,  114; 
commercial  condition  of,  115;  con¬ 
quest  of.  114;  how  to  reach,  117: 
Interoceanic  Railway  in,  118;  man¬ 
ufacture  of  chocolate  in,  132;  medi¬ 
cinal  plants  in,  123;  mineral  wealth 
of.  127;  Morazan,  President  of,  135; 
rivers  of,  124;  schools  in,  134;  shop¬ 
ping  in.  133;  Soto's  (Marco  A.)  flight 
from.  117:  telegraph  in,  125;  trans¬ 
portation  facilities  in,  124, 127, 131. 

Horseback -riding  in  Chili,  503;  in 
Mexico,  37. 

Horsemen  of  Argentine  Republic,  556, 
570. 

“  Huascar,”  Peruvian  gun-boat,  437. 

Humboldt  in  Venezuela,  262. 


INDEX. 


711 


Hurlbut,  General,  and  the  Peruviau- 
Chilian  war,  388. 

I 

Ice  in  Mexico,  42. 

Iglesias,  Don  Miguel,  396. 

Illiniani  Volcano,  Bolivia,  443. 

Immigration  resisted  in  Nicaragua, 
149. 

Inca  Empire,  origin  of  the,  429. 

Incas,  ancient  highways  of  the,  439  ; 
cemeteries  of  the,  413 ;  devotion  of 
to  their  king,  328 ;  gold  buried  by 
the,  326;  mummies  of  the,  414;  pe¬ 
culiarities  of  the,  329,  336;  relics  of 
the,  411 ;  riches  of  the,  325,  431 ; 
women  of  the,  374. 

“Inca’s  Head,”  the,  323. 

Iudians  of  Patagonia,  518,  530. 

Iodine,  how  made  in  Peru,  434. 

Isabella,  Princess  of  Brazil,  689. 

J. 

Journalism  in  Bogata,  249. 

Journey  from  Santiago  to  Buenos 
Ayres,  506,  510. 

Juan  Fernandez,  Island  of,  451. 

Juarez,  birthplace  of,  30  ;  family  in 
Mexico,  17 ;  President  of  Mexico,  31. 

K. 

Kingsley,  Charles,  on  Carthagena,  Co¬ 
lombia,  226 ;  on  South  American 
scenery,  264 ;  on  effect  of  coca- 
leaves,  479. 

L. 

Ladies,  Mexican,  38. 

La  Guayra,  city  of,  257. 

La  Libertad,  port  of,  171. 

La  Paz,  Alameda  of,  444;  cathedral 
of,  443;  city  of,  442. 

La  Plata,  city  of,  569. 

La  Silla  Mountain,  Venezuela,  261. 

Leon,  city  of,  152,  157. 

Lerdo,  President  of  Mexico,  26,  31. 

Liberal  party,  success  of,  in  Mexico, 
3, 17. 

Liebig,  Doctor,  589. 

Lima,  architecture  of,  386;  benevolent 


institutions  of,  385;  bull-fighting  in, 
382;  churches  and  monasteries  in, 
356,  361 ;  city  of,  founded,  355  ;  de¬ 
vastation  of  by  the  Chilians,  365 ; 
Inca  women  of,  374;  manta  of  the 
women  of,  370;  milk  peddlers  in, 
382  ;  newspapers  of,  386  ;  pawn¬ 
shops  of,  377 ;  population  of,  355, 
361 ;  Protestantism  in,  361 ;  residence 
of  Henry  Meiggs  in,  368  ;  Santa 
Rosa  of,  357 ;  shops  in,  385 ;  social 
condition  of,  377 ;  women  of,  368, 
380. 

Limon,  port  of,  197. 

Lincoln,  town  of,  569. 

Lopez  I.,  II.,  Presidents  of  Paraguay, 
623,  624. 

Lota,  town  of,  488,  490. 

Love-making,  Mexican,  34. 

Lynch,  Admiral,  of  Chili,  392. 

Lynch,  Patrick,  of  Chili,  475. 

M. 

Macuto,  the  Newport  of  Venezuela, 
291. 

Magdalena  River,  the,  232,  234,  237. 

Magellan,  Strait  of,  glaciers  in  the, 
517;  post-office  of,  522;  wreck  of 
steamship  “Cordillera”  in,  524. 

Managua,  city  of,  166;  Lake,  168. 

Mandioca  root,  the,  648. 

Manta  of  Peru,  romance  of  the,  372. 

Marimba,  the,  214. 

Marriages,  civil,  in  Mexico,  53. 

Maximilian  in  Mexico,  10. 

Meiggs,  Henry,  career  of  in  Chili,  463, 
467 ;  in  Peru,  402. 

Mexico,  aristocracy  of,  3,  5,  9,  17,  32 ; 
Aztec  civilization  in,  5;  bull-figlit- 
ing  in,  43;  Catholic  prejudices  in, 
58  ;  Church  restrictions  in,  4,  17  ; 
Congress  of,  22;  curious  customs  in, 
1, 18,  34,  36,  37,  39,  40,  42,  49,  53;  de¬ 
cay  of  Catholicism  in,  3 ;  Easter  Sun¬ 
day  in,  50;  former  rulers  of,  6,  17; 
funeral  customs  in,  34 ;  Gonzales, 
President  of,  22,  26  ;  horseback  rid¬ 
ing  in,  37  ;  ice  in,  42  ;  intemperance 
in,  40;  marriage  in,  34,  53;  mission¬ 
ary  work  in,  56,  58;  names  of  streets 


712 


INDEX. 


in,  36;  pawn-shops  in,  54;  police 
system  of,  43  ;  political  struggles 
in,  3,  17,  21,  26  ;  post-offices  of,  2  ; 
priests  of,  4;  Protestant  work  in,  57; 
pulque-drinking  in,  40 ;  religious  fes¬ 
tivities  in,  49;  religious  struggles  in, 
3,  17,  21,  26;  religious  superstitions 
in,  18  ;  revolution  of  students  in, 
26;  Senate  of,  21 ;  shopping  in,  39; 
smoking  in,  37 ;  social  customs  in, 
37;  steamship  subsidies  in,  3;  street¬ 
cars  in,  37;  weddiug  in,  54. 

Middleton,  British  Minister  to  Vene¬ 
zuela,  265. 

Miraculous  candlestick,  the,  418. 

Misery  of  Peru,  Blaine  responsible  for 
388. 

Misti  Volcano,  Bolivia,  420. 

Molino  del  Key,  battle-field  of,  43. 

Mollendo,  town  of,  419. 

Monte  dc  Piedad  of  Mexico,  the,  54. 

Montevideo,  bay  of,  605  ;  city  of,  548, 
602,  609. 

Montezuma,  descendants  of,  6. 

Morazan,  Dictator  of  Guatemala,  80, 
135, 136. 

Moreuo,  President  of  Ecuador,  318, 
319. 

Mummies,  eyes  of,  415. 

N. 

National  Palace  of  Nicaragua.  167. 

Navigation  Company,  The  Pacific, 
298. 

Negroes  in  Brazil,  705. 

Newspapers  of  Buenos  Ayres,  555 ; 
of  Lima.  386;  of  Montevideo,  616; 
South  American,  ibid. 

Nicaragua,  agriculture  in,  151 ;  bap¬ 
tism  of  volcanoes  in,  161 :  capitals 
of.  138.  152,  166;  cities  of,  138;  com¬ 
mercial  condition  of.  151;  Cougress 
of,  169;  earthquakes  in.  164:  Gov¬ 
ernment  of.  169  ;  holidays  in,  160  ; 
immigration  resisted  in.  149;  Na¬ 
tional  Palace  of,  167;  origin  of  name 
of,  154;  peculiar  customs  in,  141, 
161 :  people  of.  137 ;  principal  sea¬ 
port  of,  140 ;  railroads  in.  141 ;  rub¬ 
ber,  how  it  is  gathered  in,  146 ;  so¬ 


cial  restrictions  in,  159;  subjugation 
of,  154 ;  suffrage  restricted  in,  169 ; 
timber  resources  of,  145;  transporta¬ 
tion  facilities  in,  141;  Walker,  the 
filibuster,  in,  152, 165. 

Nitrate  deposits  of  Peru,  430. 

Nobility  of  Brazil,  676. 

Nomenclature,  peculiar,  in  Chil,  483. 

Nunez,  President  of  Colombia,  256. 

O. 

Officials,  Peruvian,  346. 

0’IIiggins,  Bernard,  Liberator  of  Chili, 
475. 

Old  Guatemala,  its  wealth  and  influ¬ 
ence.  63. 

Opera-house  of  Caracas,  271 ;  of  San¬ 
tiago,  470. 

Orchids  in  Colombia,  252. 

Oroya  Railroad,  Peru,  403. 

Ostrich-huuting  in  Patagonia,  538,540. 

Ox-carts  in  Costa  Rica,  employment 
of,  212. 

P. 

Palaces,  Mexican,  30,  32. 

Paraguay,  capital  of,  636  ;  cattle-rais¬ 
ing  in,  658;  commerce  of,  633;  cus¬ 
toms  peculiar  to,  636,  638,  642,  645, 
649,  651,  652;  Prancia,  “Perpetual 
President"  of,  623;  fruits  of,  648; 
funeral  customs  in,  645 ;  Govern¬ 
ment's  effort  to  educate  the  people 
of,  634;  immigration  to,  628;  land 
laws  of.  629;  Lopez  I.,  II.,  Presi¬ 
dents  of,  623,  624;  marriage  customs 
in.  645;  native  customs  in,  642;  pop¬ 
ulation  of,  630;  Protestantism  in, 
635;  railroads  in,  633 ;  reorganiza¬ 
tion  of  the  Government  of,  627  ; 
steamships  to.  566, 634 ;  tapioca,  how 
made  in,  650 ;  tea-drinking  in,  651 ; 
timber  of,  656 ;  tobacco  cultivated 
in.  655:  war  of  with  Brazil  and  the 
Argentine  Republic,  625;  women  of, 
643 

Paraguay  River,  the,  632. 

Parana  River,  the,  631. 

Patagonia,  capital  of,  536 ;  Fenton, 
Doctor,  in,  537;  fur-bearing  animals 
in,  539 ;  Indians  of,  530 ;  ostrich- 


INDEX. 


713 


hunting  in,  538,  540 ;  partition  of, 
528;  ranchmen  in,  534;  Roca’s  (Gen¬ 
eral)  Indian  campaign  in,  533;  Ster¬ 
ling,  Bishop,  in,  521 ;  Taylor’s  (Wm.) 
adventure  with  cannibals  in,  525. 

Peonage,  Nicaraguan,  150. 

Peru,  Andes  railway  in,  407;  army  of 
Chili  in,  392;  capture  of  by  Caceres, 
395;  cause  of  the  late  war  in,  434; 
coca  plant  in,  448;  Congress  of,  388; 
“deck  trading”  in,  347;  desert  of, 
417;  iodine,  how  made  in,  434;  mines 
of,  362;  nitrate  cf  soda  deposits  iu, 
430  ;  petroleum  in,  344  ;  Pizarro’s 
plunder  in,  431 ;  railroads  in,  346, 
401 ;  rain  never  falls  in,  387  ;  salt¬ 
petre,  how  made  in,  433  ;  shoes  of 
natives  of,  484;  soldiers  of,  352;  war 
with  Chili,  its,  388;  water  in,  436. 

Peruvian  bark,  supply  of,  446 ;  deserts, 
water  in,  436. 

Petropolis,  palace  of,  Brazil,  684. 

Pichincha  Volcano,  Ecuador,  323. 

Pierola,  Don  Nicolas,  396. 

Pizarro,  304,  325,  326,  344,  362. 

Plate  River,  the,  543,  581,  630. 

Poncho,  the,  505,  577. 

Popocatepetl  Mountain,  Mexico,  42. 

Potosi,  silver-mines  of,  445. 

Prado,  President  of  Peru,  398. 

Puerto  Cabello,  Venezuela,  295. 

Pulpit,  a  miraculous,  228. 

Puna,  island  of,  344. 

.  Puno,  town  of,  438. 

Punta  Arenas,  railroad  to,  211  ;  Tay¬ 
lor’s  journey  to,  527. 

Q. 

Quinine,  discovery  of  in  Peru,  446. 

Quito,  age  of,  325;  architecture  of,  332 ; 
business  perfidy  in,  335;  climate  of, 
333;  earthquakes  in,  324;  journey 
to,  309,  318;  manufacturing  in,  337; 
monks  of,  332;  no  newspapers  in, 
340;  schools  in,  340;  volcanoes  near, 
323. 

R. 

Rnbonas  of  Peru,  348. 

Railway,  Interoceanic,  in  Honduras, 
118. 


Rain  never  falls  in  Peru,  387. 

Religion  and  politics  in  Mexico,  3,  17. 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  bay  of,  660 ;  filth  of, 
662;  horse -cars  of,  668;  hotels  of, 
673;  social  customs  iu,  670;  streets 
of,  664 ;  theatres  of,  672 ;  women  of, 
670. 

Rio  de  la  Plata,  the,  630. 

Robinson  Crusoe’s  Island,  451. 

Roca,  General,  Indian  campaign  of  iu 
Patagonia,  533;  President  of  Argen¬ 
tine  Republic,  568. 

Rosas,  the  tyrant,  549,  572. 

Rubber-gathering  in  Nicaragua,  146. 

Rubio,  Romero,  32. 

Ruins  in  Guatemala,  67;  of  old  Span¬ 
ish  forts  in  Venezuela,  259. 

S. 

Sabanilla,  port  of,  232. 

Sailors,  superstitious,  544. 

Saint,  a  preserved,  229 ;  Martin,  tomb 
of,  566;  the  only  American,  358. 

San  Jose,  city  of,  203;  merchants  of, 
204;  transportation  of  freight  to, 
199;  volcanoes  around,  200. 

San  Salvador,  area  of,  175;  attempt  to 
join  the  United  States,  its,  176;  bal¬ 
sam  coast  of,  192 ;  capital  of,  178 ; 
Christmas  iu,  184;  conscription  in, 
110  ;  destruction  of,  192 ;  earth¬ 
quakes  in,  187, 192;  Government  of, 
178;  homes  of  the  people  of,  180; 
lauding  in,  171 ;  patriotism  of  the 
people  of,  183;  peculiar  customs  of, 
181-183,193;  political  history  of, 
176;  political  organization  of,  178; 
Romanism  in,  177,  183 ,  social  con¬ 
dition  in,  181;  suffrage  in,  178;  vol¬ 
canoes  of,  179;  women  of,  181,  187. 

Santa  Anna,  widow  of,  13. 

Santiago,  Alameda  of,  466  ;  Catholi¬ 
cism  in,  493;  church  catastrophe  in, 
496  ;  Church  struggles  in,  493  ;  cli¬ 
mate  of,  464;  coal-mines  at,  488  ; 
Cousino,  Donna  Isadora,  Croesus  of, 
487;  cuaca  dance  in,  469;  earth¬ 
quakes  in,  483,  499  ;  Exposition 
buildings  in,  470  ;  farming  iu,  489, 
502  ;  home  for  foundlings  in,  463  ; 


714 


INDEX. 


horseback  riding  in.  503;  hotels  of, 

472  •  journey  from  Buenos  Ayres  to, 
506,’ 510;  Liberal  party  in,  493;  mar¬ 
riage  in,  494  ;  men  of  Irish  descent 
in,°475 ;  nomenclature  peculiar  to, 
483;  opera-house  in,  470;  peonage 
iu  503;  plunder  from  Peru  in,  471 ; 
political  struggle  in,  493;  Presiden¬ 
tial  election  in,  495  ;  Protestantism 
in  496;  railroad  facilities  of,  464, 
481 ;  railroad  from  to  Buenos  Ayres, 
510-  Santa  Lucia  Park  in,  46 7  ; 

“  Sefior  May”  in,  499;  shops  of.  465; 
superstition  in.  499;  women  of,  4a8, 
461,472,484,498. 

Santos,  President  of  Uruguay,  o93. 

613.  ,  , 

Sarmiento.  ex-Prcsident  of  Argentine 
Republic,  557. 

Selkirk,  Alexander,  on  Island  of  Juan 
Fernandez,  452. 

Sinibnldi!  Vice-President  of  Guate¬ 
mala,  113. 

Sirroche  disease,  the.  4 13. 

Smyth's  Chaunel,  beauty  of,  516. 
Soldiers.  Peruvian,  348. 

Soto,  De,  President  of  Costa  Bica,  ---■ 
Soto.  Marco  A.,  President  of  Hondu¬ 
ras,  117. 

South  America,  desert  on  west  const 
of,  342  ;  freight  charges  on  west 
coast  of’,  298;  Yankees  of.  542. 
Sterling,  Bishop,  missionary  work  ot 


Tropics,  fleas  in  the,  260. 

Tumbez,  petroleum  deposits  near,  344. 

Tunguragua  Volcano,  Ecuador,  324. 

U. 

Union  of  Central  America,  plan,  etc., 
104,106-108. 

United  Slates,  trade  with  Argentine 
Republic,  553. 

University  of  Argentine  Republic,  ,>>6 , 
of  Costa  Rica,  218;  of  I  euezuela, 

Uruguay,  architecture  of,  607;  army 
of!  610;  beggars  of,  610;  birth  sta¬ 
tistics  of,  598;  Catholic  Church  in, 
61-2,  615;  cattle  in,  600,  602;  censor¬ 
ship  of  the  press  in,  620;  commerce 
of  600-  customs  peculiar  to,  603, 
607  609-611,  615,  618.  620  ;  decay  of 
Romanism  in,  612,  615;  growth  of. 
506-  ignorance  concerning,  591;  liv¬ 
ing  cheap  in,  598;  Methodist  Church 
in°615;  mining  in,  592;  newspapers 
in  616;  population  of,  599;  Protes¬ 
tantism  in.  612;  railroad  system  of, 
599-  resources  of,  596,  598;  revolu¬ 
tion  in,  592  ;  Santos,  President  of, 
593  613;  Vidal,  President  of,  596; 
wealth  of.  599.  600;  women  of,  607; 
Wood,  Rev.  Thomas,  in,  614 ;  wool 
product  of,  601. 


521. 


T. 


Tapioca,  how  made  in  Paraguay,  6o( 
Taylor,  William,  his  adventure  with 
cannibals  in  Patagonia.  525. 

Tegucigalpa,  city  of.  128. 

Terra  del  Fuego.  cannibalism  in.  524; 
Indians  of,  518 ;  missionary  work 
in,  521. 

Theatre  Yturbide.  Mexico.  22. 

Timber  regions  of  Paraguay,  streams 
in.  656. 

Titicaca.  Lake,  428.  _ 

Tobacco,  cultivation  of  in  Paraguay , 

655.  , 

Tropical  vegetation,  beauty  of  near 
Guayaquil,  302. 


Valparaiso,  character  of  people  of,  . 
4W  472  475.  480;  city  of.  4i6;  com¬ 
merce  of.  455.  457;  customs  pe_culiar 
to,  458.  461-464.  469,  4,2.  4«o,  480, 
483  44 7  498;  female  street-car  con¬ 
ductors ’in,  458,  461 ;  harbor  of,  454- 
intemperance  in,  458;  the  prejudice 
agaJt  United  States*. ,454.  ^team- 
ship  communication  with,  4o  , 

488;  women  of.  461. 

Venezuela,  architecture  of.  2,3 

Blanco.  Guzman,  Dictator  o  ,  ~  •  • 
086  291:  Bolivar,  Simon,  exile 
from  266;  Boulton,  Bliss &Pallett  s 
steamers  to.  257:  burial  customs  in, 
280:  chocolate  production  in,  -  , 

coffee  plantations  iu.  293;  Congress 


INDEX. 


715 


of,  274  ;  customs  peculiar  to,  270, 
271,  273,  276,  277,  280,  281,  284,  292; 
downfall  of  Romisli  Church  in,  277, 
290;  Federal  Palace  of,  272;  Hum¬ 
boldt  in,  262  ;  Middleton,  British 
Minister  to,  265;  political  progress 
in,  266;  population  of,  266;  ruins  of 
old  Spanish  forts  in,  259;  schools  of, 
270;  social  customs  of,  281,  284;  tel¬ 
ephones  in,  271;  University  of,  272; 
voyage  from  New  York  to,  257; 
women  of,  281 ;  Yellow  House,  offi¬ 
cial  residence  of  the  President  of,  275. 

Venezuelan  independence, relics  of, 276. 

Vicuna,  the,  423. 

Vidal,  President  of  Uruguay,  596. 

W. 

W alker,  filibuster,  in  Nicaragua,  152, 
165. 


War  with  Brazil  and  the  Argentine 
Republic,  Paraguay’s,  625 ;  with 
Chili,  Peru’s,  388,  434. 

Washington,  town  of,  569. 

Watering-place,  the  Venezuelan,  291. 

Wheelwright,  Wm.,  in  Buenos  Ayres, 
562. 

Winslow,  the  forger,  in  Buenos  Ayres, 
562. 

Wood,  Rev.  Thomas,  missionary  in 
Uruguay,  614. 

World,  highest  town  in  the,  423. 

Y. 

Yellow  House,  Venezuela,  275. 

Yerba  mate  of  Paraguay,  651. 

Yturbide,  family  of,  9  ;  romance  of, 
13;  Theatre,  22. 

Yzalco  Volcano,  San  Salvador,  179, 
188. 


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Thomson’s  Central  Palestine  and  Phoenicia. 

The  Land  and  the  Book:  Central  Palestine  and  Phoenicia.  By  William  M. 
Thomson,  D.D.  180  Illustrations  and  Maps.  Square  8vo,  Cloth,  $6  00;  Sheep, 
$7  00;  Half  Morocco,  $8  50;  Full  Morocco,  Gilt  Edges,  $10  00. 

Thomson’s  Lebanon,  Damascus,  and  Beyond  Jordan. 

The  Land  and  the  Book:  Lebanon,  Damascus,  and  Beyond  Jordan.  By  Will¬ 
iam  M.  Thomson,  D.D.  147  Illustrations  and  Maps.  Square  8vo,  Cloth,  $6  00; 
Sheep,  $7  00;  Half  Morocco,  $8  50  ;  Full  Morocco,  Gilt  Edges,  $10  00. 

The  Land  and  the  Book.  ( Popular  Edition.) 

Comprising  the  above  three  volumes.  Square  8vo,  Cloth,  $9  00.  ( Sold  in  Sets 

only.) 

Bridgman’s  Algeria. 

Winters  in  Algeria.  Written  and  Illustrated  by  Frederick  Arthur  Bridgman. 
Square  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  $2  50. 

Pennells’  Hebrides. 

Our  Journey  to  the  Hebrides.  By  Joseph  Pennell  and  Elizabeth  Robins  Pen¬ 
nell.  Illustrated.  Post  8vo,  Cloth,  Ornamental,  $1  75. 

Shoshone,  and  Other  Western  Wonders. 

By  Edwards  Roberts.  With  a  Preface  by  Charles  Francis  Adams.  Illustrated, 
pp.  xvi.,  276.  Post  8vo,  Cloth,  $1  00;  Paper,  75  cents. 

Schweinfurth’s  Heart  of  Africa. 

The  Heart  of  Africa;  or,  Three  Years’  Travels  and  Adventures  in  the  Unex¬ 
plored  Regions  of  the  Centre  of  Africa.  From  1868  to  1871.  By  Dr.  Georg 
Schweinfurth.  Translated  by  Ellen  E.  Frewer.  With  an  Introduction  by  Win- 
wood  Reade.  Illustrated  by  about  130  Wood-cuts  from  Drawings  made  by  the 
Author,  and  with  Two  Maps.  2  vols.,  8vo,  Cloth,  $8  00. 

Speke’s  Africa. 

Journal  of  the  Discovery  of  the  Source  of  the  Nile.  By  John  Hanning  Speke, 
Captain  H.  M.  Indian  Army,  Fellow  and  Gold  Medalist  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society,  Hon.  Corresponding  Member  and  Gold  Medalist  of  the  French  Geograph¬ 
ical  Society,  &c.  With  Maps  and  Portraits  and  numerous  Illustrations,  chiefly 
from  Drawings  by  Captain  Grant.  8vo,  Cloth,  $4  00;  Sheep,  $4  50. 

Baker’s  Ismailia. 

Ismailia :  a  Narrative  of  the  Expedition  to  Central  Africa  for  the  Suppression  of 
the  Slave-trade,  organized  by  Ismail,  Khedive  of  Egypt.  Bv  Sir  Samuel  White 
Baker,  Pasha,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  F.R.G.S.,  Major-general  of  the  Ottoman  Empire,  late 
Governor-general  of  the  Equatorial  Nile  Basin,  &c.,  &c.  With  Maps,  Portraits, 
and  upwards  of  fifty  full-page  Illustrations  by  Zwecker  and  Durand.  8vo,  Cloth, 
$5  00;  Half  Calf,  $7  25. 


4 


Valuable  Works  of  Travel  and  Adventure. 


Schliemann’s  Ilios. 

Ilios,  the  City  and  Country  of  the  Trojans.  The  Results  of  Researches  and  Dis¬ 
coveries  on  the  Site  of  Troy  and  Throughout  the  Troad  in  the  years  1871-72- 
’73— ’78— ’79  ;  including  an  Autobiography  of  the  Author.  By  Dr.  Henry  Schlie- 
mann,  F.S.A.,  F. R.T.  British  Architects;  Author  of  “Troy  and  its  Remains,” 
“  Mycenae,”  &c.  With  a  Preface,  Appendices,  and  Notes  by  Professors  Rudolf  Vir¬ 
chow,  Max  Muller,  A.  H.  Sayce,  J.  P.  Mahaffy,  H.  Brugsch-Bey,  P.  Ascherson,  M. 
A.  Postolaccas,  M.  E.  Burnouf,  Mr.  F.  Calvert,  and  Mr.  A.  J.  Duffield.  With  Maps, 
Plans,  and  about  1800  Illustrations.  Imperial  8vo,  Cloth,  §12  00;  Half  Morocco, 
§15  00. 

Schliemann's  Troja. 

Troja.  Results  of  the  Latest  Researches  anil  Discoveries  on  the  Site  of  Homer’s 
Troy,  and  in  the  Heroic  Tumuli  and  other  Sites,  made  in  the  year  1882,  and  a 
Narrative  of  a  Journey  in  the  Troad  in  1881.  Bv  Dr.  IIknrt  Schliemann,  Author 
of  “Ilios,”  &c.  Preface  by  Professor  A.  H.  Sayce.  With  150  Wood-cuts  and  4 
Maps  and  Plans.  8vo,  Cloth,  §7  50;  Half  Morocco,  §10  00. 

Thomson's  Malacca,  Indo-China,  and  China. 

The  Straits  of  Malacca,  Indo-China,  and  China ;  or,  Ten  Years’  Travels,  Advent¬ 
ures,  and  Residence  Abroad.  By  J.  Thomson.  With  over  Sixty  Illustrations. 
8vo,  Cloth,  §4  00. 

Spry’s  Cruise  of  the  “Challenger.” 

The  Cruise  of  Her  Majesty’s  Ship  “Challenger.”  Voyages  over  many  Seas, 
Scenes  in  many  Lands.  By  W.  J.  J.  Spry,  R.N.  With  Maps  and  Illustrations. 
Crown  Svo,  Cloth,  §2  00. 

Cameron's  Across  Africa. 

Across  Africa.  By  Verne y  Lovett  Cameron,  C.B.,  D.C.L.,  Commander  Royal 
Navy,  Ac.  With  a  Map  and  Numerous  Illustrations.  Svo,  Cloth,  §5  00. 

Vambery’s  Central  Asia. 

Travels  in  Central  Asia :  being  the  Account  of  a  Journey  from  Teheran  across 
the  Turkoman  Desert,  on  the  Eastern  Shore  of  the  Caspian,  to  Khiva,  Bokhara, 
and  Samarcand,  performed  in  the  year  1863.  By  Arm  ini  us  VamdiSry,  Member 
of  the  Hungarian  Academy  of  Pesth,  by  whom  he  was  sent  on  this  Scientific  Mis¬ 
sion.  With  Map  and  Wood-cuts.  8vo,  Cloth,  §4  50;  Half  Calf,  §6  76. 

MacG-ahan’s  Campaigning  on  the  Oxus. 

Campaigning  on  the  Oxus  and  the  Fall  of  Khiva.  By  J.  A.  MacGahan.  With 
Map  and  Illustrations.  Svo,  Cloth,  §3  50. 

Forbes’s  Wanderings  in  the  Eastern  Archipelago. 

A  Naturalist’s  Wanderings  in  the  Eastern  Archipelago.  A  Narrative  of  Travel 
and  Exploration  from  1878  to  1883.  By  Henry  O.  Forbes,  F.R.G.S.,  &c.  With 
many  Illustrations  and  Colored  Maps.  8vo,  Ornamental  Cloth,  §5  00. 


Published  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

tW  Harper  &  Brothers  mill  send  any  of  the  above  marks  by  mail,  postage  prepaid,  to  any 
part  of  the  United  States.  Canada,  or  Mexico,  on  receipt  of  the  price. 


Or 

Cu^_ 


Archbishop  Corrigan  Memorial  Italy 
St.  Joseph's  Seminary 
Dunwoodie 


r 


Yonkers,  4,  N.  Y. 


GETTY  CENTER  LIBRARY 


3  3125  00036 


21 


8 


